Piniella, Torre two old pros

They're two older, worldly, battle-tested baseball managers.

Tonight they'll probably be inflicted with a few more wrinkles when Dodgers and the Cubs play a National League division series game at Wrigley Field.

Or maybe they won't, considering they probably won't experience anything - agony, ecstasy, everything in between - that they haven't experienced before.

Dodgers manager Joe Torre, 68 years old, won four World Series while managing the Yankees. Cubs manager Lou Piniella, 65, won one with the Reds.

Before that Torre suffered defeat with the Mets, Braves and Cardinals. Piniella had a miserable time managing the Devil Rays before they became just the Rays and just plain good this season.

As players, Torre was a terrific hitter who didn't win a championship and Piniella a pretty good one who won a few.

These two guys have been around the baseball block and passed each other along the way.

"We're friends," Piniella said Tuesday. "We compete against each other, but I have a tremendous amount of respect for him, obviously, as a person and as a manager."

Not surprisingly considering their long and meritorious service, the feeling is mutual.

"I certainly respect what he's done in the game," Torre said of Piniella. "He worked in several different jobs (with the Yankees), had that season in Seattle where they won 116 games."

As Torre knows all too well, Piniella also won that World Series with the Reds in 1990.

"I may say at that point in time I had never been to the World Series," Torre said with a chuckle. "I was managing the Cardinals and my wife insisted we go home to see her family.

"I had to be standing in the streets when (the Reds) were winning the World Series and having everybody tell me I had never won one before.

"Members of my family were telling me this."

Torre doesn't have to listen to that anymore after winning four with the Yankees while getting to the playoffs each of his 12 seasons with them.

Now it's Piniella who has some catching up to do now. Listening to Torre, anything is possible.

"Lou and I have a good relationship and I respect the heck out of him because his passion for the game has not waned at all," Torre said. "(Piniella) has a plan, he's very emotional, and he has a feel for the game.

"We put so much stock now into statistics. But I have a sense that Lou doesn't need all that information to help him make decisions."

The long, winding paths of Torre and Piniella nearly collided a couple of years ago when rumors were that the Yankees would fire Torre and hire Piniella.

"No, that stuff never bothered me," Torre said. "I knew Lou, first, was very dear friends with George Steinbrenner. They're both from Tampa. Lou and I have a good relationship as far as I know."

They do as far as Piniella knows, also.

"(Torre's) a friendly guy," the Cubs manager said. "Are we best friends? Probably not, but I enjoy talking with him when I see him. I respect his baseball acumen, and at the same time I respect the fact that he's had a lot of success."

Now Piniella and Torre will try to limit the other's success during the Cubs-Dodgers best-of-five playoff series.