ESPN MLB

Forget about the introductions at home plate April 20, when the Chicago Cubs play the St. Louis Cardinals for the first time since the Cubs' latest managerial change. Lou Piniella and Tony La Russa know each other almost as well as they know themselves.

The question is: Can a friendship with its roots in childhood survive the intensity of the Cubs-Cardinals rivalry?

La Russa was saddened to see his relationship with Dusty Baker sour during the four years they maneuvered against each other, emotions getting the best of both at different times. He acknowledges that competing against another manager sometimes "strains the friendship.''

The 2003 season, Baker's first with the Cubs, included regular confrontations as both men fought to mark their turf in the National League Central.

"It's different because Dusty and I became friends in pro ball,'' La Russa said earlier this month. "Lou and I go back as kids, so it's a different kind of [relationship]. We had the experience with the A's and Seattle, so we've done it before.''

Not that it will make it easier.

"It's not my preference to have competition in your division with somebody that you're close to,'' La Russa admits, "but that's the way it is.''

Piniella and La Russa have known each other more than 50 years now, having grown up together in West Tampa, Fla. They've had baseball careers that mirrored each other, with La Russa answering Piniella's superior playing career by becoming more decorated as a manager.

Both have won World Series -- La Russa this year joining Sparky Anderson as the only men to win championships in both leagues -- during a combined 47 seasons as big-league managers. Both have won Manager of the Year awards (four for La Russa, two for Piniella), and Piniella's 2006 season working for FOX marked the only time since 1989 that both haven't had managerial jobs.

Both are products of blue-collar neighborhoods in which parents worked hard, kids played hard and second place was nothing to brag about.

Piniella is one year older. He went to Jesuit High, starring in basketball for the Catholic power, while La Russa attended public school at Jefferson. They got to know each other on baseball diamonds, usually playing against each other but sometimes being placed on the same teams in Pony League and American Legion ball.

That was the case in 1961, when they traveled to California to play in the Colt League World Series.

A few years ago, one of Piniella's childhood friends, Paul Ferlita, recalled a scary moment on that trip.

"We'd taken a trip up to one of the mountains and we were walking along a ledge toward a waterfall," Ferlita told the St. Petersburg Times. "He and La Russa rolled a log down the side, and my father held them back from the group and lectured them while the rest of us walked ahead. They tried to catch up and ran along the edge of the mountain. Lou fell and tumbled for quite a while before he hit a big boulder. It was the only thing between him and a 2,000-foot drop. If he hadn't hit the boulder, he'd probably have been killed."

The smaller, quicker La Russa was a cerebral player even as a kid. Piniella was the more gifted athlete -- bigger, stronger, able to do remarkable things in everything he tried. He was as noted for his competitiveness as his ability, and often exploded on the court and the field.

"He was really a hot-tempered, great athlete," La Russa said. "He was a great basketball player, a great baseball player. He was a really good, competitive player, I thought, a terrific winning player, and he carries that into his managing."

During his 28 years as a big-league manager, La Russa has had some memorable explosions. But it was Piniella who had the hair trigger when they were kids.

"Even when he signed as a minor leaguer, some of the things he did were on the crazy side,'' La Russa said. "And he had that in high school. But he's a very smart man, and over time, I think he understood that to be successful, he had to tone it down a little without losing his competitive desire. His mellowing out may be just turning it down a little bit to where he wasn't going crazy."

La Russa and Piniella first managed against each other in 1986, when Piniella was with the New York Yankees and La Russa still with the Chicago White Sox, the team that gave him his first managerial job. They managed teams in the same division once before, with Piniella taking over the doormat Seattle Mariners in 1993, when La Russa's Oakland A's were beginning their downward spiral in the American League West.

La Russa holds a 36-31 edge in the head-to-head matchup, although Piniella won the only meetings most people remember. His "Nasty Boys'' squad in Cincinnati swept the A's in the 1990 World Series. Their friendship survived that, so maybe it can handle the Cubs-Cards challenge.

Piniella and La Russa stayed up late one night during the winter meetings to establish the ground rules.

"Tony and I, we had a nice conversation till about 3 in the morning, and we vowed that we would remain friends, that we would leave our competition on the field, and that would be the end of it,'' said Piniella, 63. "I have a tremendous amount of respect for Tony. I really do. And I think we are both at times in our careers where we realize that, hey, we are gonna go out there and try to beat each other every day, but when it's over, just leave it there, go back and compete the next day.''

Both Piniella and La Russa long ago earned reputations for working umpires and trying to intimidate opponents. Piniella laughed when asked about La Russa's reputation for gamesmanship.

"Well, the gamesmanship, we have got gamesmanship on our side too now,'' he said. "I mean, it will be fun competing against him that way, although really when I manage a baseball team, I've learned that I manage my own team, utilize my own players' strengths and don't try to manage too much against the opposing manager.''

This will be fun to watch. Hopefully it will be fun for La Russa and Piniella, too.

Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com. His book, "Say It's So," a story about the 2005 White Sox, is available at bookstores, through amazon.com or by direct order from Triumph Books (800-222-4657).