Aaron Boone and Dave Roberts share a long-standing rivalry

LOS ANGELES – During Media Day on Thursday, before Game 1 of the World Series at Dodger Stadium on Friday night, Yankees manager Aaron Boone sat at the podium and showered Dave Roberts' team with nothing but respect and praise.

Well… one of Roberts' teams.

The Dodgers? A worthy opponent in the Classic case. The UCLA Bruins?

“I am a [USC] “Trojans,” Boone said with a grin. “As we all know here, you're a Trojan for life, you're a Bruin for four years.” That's probably the case with Doc.

Roberts stood at the same podium a few hours later and learned of Boone's preference.

“Ouch,” Roberts quipped. “Ouch, that hurts. …Strongly disagree, 100 percent.”

Long before Roberts and Boone were rival World Series managers, they were college baseball rivals in Los Angeles in the early 1990s. Boone played third base at USC from 1992 to 1994. Roberts played outfield for UCLA that same year.

“Yeah, I can see Doc and his little batting swing where he hit the ball the other way,” Boone recalled. “He was a good player, someone I got to know a little bit at that point, just playing against him because he was such a great guy. But I remember him well, leadoff hitter, left fielder for the Bruins. Fun times, fun days.”

Roberts' memories were full of nostalgia – but a little more bitter.

“We weren’t friends,” Roberts said. “I don't think I cared too much about him at that point, and I don't think he cared too much about me. I remember they understood that.” He was the best of us back then, so it probably increased my dislike for him and the Trojans. But he was always a great ballplayer.”

In many ways, Roberts and Boone followed parallel paths to this point – from college ball in Los Angeles to indelible October moments a decade later.

Boone's walk-off home run in Game 7 gave the Yankees a famous victory in the 2003 American League Championship Series over the Red Sox. A year later, Roberts' stolen base sparked Boston's fabled comeback from a 3-0 ALCS deficit en route to its first World Series title since 1918. (It's worth noting that neither Boone nor Roberts were on the wrong end of those defeats. Roberts didn't join the Sox until 2004 – a season Boone missed due to injury before signing with Cleveland.)

Now their rivalry has stretched into a fourth decade. He has developed into a much friendlier character. When the Yankees' plane landed in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Boone wanted Roberts to know they had arrived.

“I sent him a Yankee emoji when we landed,” Boone said.

“You know what, there was another emoji I wanted to send him with a finger,” Roberts joked. “But I didn’t do that. I just returned a laughing emoji.”

By the numbers, Roberts was probably the better college player. In his final season, he hit .326, including a .353 mark with a .913 OPS and 45 steals. Boone hit .302 but also had a fantastic 1994 season. It was Boone, selected by the Reds in the third round of the 1994 draft – with a big league pedigree and a more adaptable frame. The 5-foot-10 Roberts, meanwhile, fell short in the 28th round, where he was selected by Detroit.

Both spent the late '90s searching for their big league break and then went on to similar playing careers – more than a decade in the big leagues, largely defined by a singular moment in October.

Now Boone is in his seventh season as manager of the Yankees and is appearing in the World Series for the first time. Roberts, who has managed the Dodgers for nine seasons, will be at the helm in his fourth Fall Classic.

“I think it's really cool that we played against each other in college as college rivals, and now you can just see that rivalry with the Dodgers and the Yankees,” Roberts said. “It's something very special. It goes way back and now we’re doing it again by competing against each other, it’s a pretty good story.”

Despite the obvious connections, Boone and Roberts hadn't spent much time together off the field until a golf outing a few winters ago organized by some mutual friends.

After the round they sat together and talked. Bruin to Trojan, Dodger to Yankee, the similarities were more than anything.

“I was able to sit around for a while afterward and just talk shop,” Boone remembers. “He's just someone that I have a lot of respect for and certainly someone that you know can certainly relate to what you're going through in this job. In many ways, our jobs and our markets are similar. I think we have that appreciation and respect for each other.”

Four decades and more.