BOSTON -- If Dave Dombrowski decides to turn to a division rival in search of trade reinforcements this July, he may just find himself working closely once again with a friend of more than 30 years.

The relationship between Dombrowski and Dan Duquette, the former Red Sox general manager who has served the Orioles in the same role since 2011, dates back to the early 1980s, when the two men ran in the same midwestern baseball circles. Dombrowski, who was with the White Sox at the time, and Duquette, who worked in the Brewers scouting department, chatted frequently at hot stove events and scouting dinners in Chicago, forging a friendship that was strengthened by the White Sox-Brewers rivalry of that era.

In the more than three decades since, Dombrowski and Duquette have worked closely to build the Montreal Expos into an almost-champion, been front office heads of a combined five different organizations and each had a turn as the head executive of the Red Sox.

And through it all, they've remained good friends.

"So, you want the story,"" Duquette said, laughing earlier this month in Baltimore, "on DD and DD."

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Dombrowski left Chicago for Montreal in 1987 and spent a year as director of player development before he was promoted to assistant general manager less than a year later. With a vacancy at farm director, Dombrowski recommended Duquette, opening the door for the men to work together for the first time.

"I wanted to train to be a farm director and Dave wanted to move up and be an executive," Duquette said. "It worked out. Dave recommended me and I became director of player development."

Dombrowski took over as the club's general manager at age 31, replacing Bill Stoneman in July 1988. He'd work closely with Duquette for the next three seasons, promoting him to assistant general manager for the 1991 season.

Though Dombrowski is less than two years older than Duquette, he became one of Duquette's mentors. In addition to teaching Duquette the importance of strong international scouting, Dombrowski, who Duquette described as a "big stickler" on league rules, made sure that his subordinates were receiving all the tools they needed to successfully run a team on their own.

"He gave me the training I needed to become a general manager," Duquette said. "Like all the administrative operations. He used to have little seminars with the younger executives on learning the waiver rules and things like that. Dave would assign a specific subject for you to understand.

"His style is very inclusive," Duquette said. "If you're in baseball operations with Dave, he gives you the opportunity to make decisions and the autonomy to make decisions. But he also holds you accountable."

Dombrowski recognized the potential of his assistant, never worrying that Duquette's career would surpass his own.

"Dan is a very good baseball man," Dombrowski said. "Smart, hard-working, knowledgeable. You could see he had a bright future ahead of him.

"I never thought of it as a competition with somebody for another job. I always just tried to do the best job I could for the organization and see what would end up happening. I always tell this to people, even when I talk to groups -- just worry about the things you can control, like your own work ethic and how you do your job. You let everything else take care of itself."

Outside the office, the two men became close friends, frequently attending Montreal Canadiens games together and sitting directly behind then-goalie Patrick Roy during their first winter in town. Dombrowski was single at the time and Duquette's family had not yet moved to Montreal, so the two young executives spent plenty of time together.

"We used to do things together," Dombrowski said. "I'd go over his house. He'd have Halloween parties and I remember going over there for that. We used to ski a lot. We used to do a lot of cross-country skiing. We used to have a good time together."

Duquette claimed he still has pictures of Dombrowski in costume with his date from those Halloween parties.

"Those aren't for distribution," Duquette said.

Dombrowski left the Expos at the end of the 1991 season to run the expansion Florida Marlins, who would start play in 1993. His replacement in Montreal was Duquette, who became a general manager for the first time.

"I was very happy [for him]," Dombrowski said. "He deserved it. He was the logical person to get the job and I knew that he'd do a good job there. It didn't last long, because he moved down to Boston. But I was very happy for him."

Dombrowski was far from the only Expos executive to head south, as most of Montreal's front office went with him. This provided a unique challenge for Duquette, who had to virtually build his first staff from scratch.

"He just about took the whole organization," Duquette said. "So Bill White, the president of the National League, called me up and said, 'Dan, this isn't right.' I think they had taken like 18 of the staff members. I told him, 'no, Bill. It's fine. The Expos have a great organization and if these guys don't want to be here, then it's better they go with Dave.' So he told me he wasn't letting any more of these guys go. So I told him, 'two more! There's just two more!' but Bill decided to cut it off."

The Duquette-led Expos were successful in his two years at the helm, winning 87 games in 1992 and 94 in 1993 before Duquette's hometown team, the Red Sox came calling.

"We had a good team, we had great talent," Duquette said. "And we had a lot of good people. Dave took a lot of the people that he brought to Montreal to Miami with him and ended up doing a lot of great things with that club, too.

"A lot of the guys Dave took to Florida were friends of mine. But I was able to replace them. There were some really good people in the Expos organization."

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Over the next two decades, Dombrowski and Duquette stayed in touch while jumping from organization to organization. Dombrowski left Miami to run the Tigers, beginning in 2002. Duquette lasted in Boston until 2002, then took a long hiatus from baseball.

When Duquette began to consider the possibility of re-entering baseball operations in 2011, his old friend Dombrowski was one of the major catalysts of his return. Duquette visited Dombrowski in Lakeland during spring training and expressed his desire to get back into baseball.

"He gave me a couple of ideas on where I could go to get back into the mainstream of baseball," Duquette said. "I've always appreciated that. When I got the job here, I made sure to recognize Dave's contribution to helping my career and for encouraging me when I was out to get back into it."

Duquette accepted the job in Baltimore after the 2011 season, re-entering a league that Dombrowski had never left. The pair got together on the most significant trade they've ever worked out in 2014, when shortstop Alex Gonzalez was sent from Baltimore to Detroit for Steve Lombardozzi.

The two executives speak once in a while and make sure to talk at length whenever their teams match up. Dombrowski travels to almost every Red Sox road series and Duquette has a home on Cape Cod, making it easy to keep in touch.

A particularly meaningful rotation took place in Cooperstown three years ago, when both Duquette and Dombrowski traveled for the induction of former Expo Pedro Martinez. The executives were joined by ex-Expos colleagues Gary Hughes and Frank Wren and reminisced about the Montreal days in the plaque room at the Hall of Fame.

Though Duquette credits Dombrowski as a mentor, the relationship between the men has helped them both. When Dombrowski was fired by the Tigers and hired by the Red Sox in 2015, Duquette reached out to tell him that he'd have a lot of help from fans with constant ideas on how to improve the club.

"It's a tough job," Duquette said. "Dave knows he has a lot of assistant GMs there with the Red Sox. You get a lot of help with such a passionate fan base. I just told him he'd have a lot of help. I didn't tell him he needed it."

Dombrowski and Duquette have not yet pulled off a trade between the Red Sox and O's, but it now looks more likely than any time since Dombrowski was hired in 2015. The Orioles are going to be sellers at the trade deadline and have some pieces that may interest Boston, like Manny Machado, Zach Britton, Adam Jones and Brad Brach.

Though the clubs are division rivals, Boston and Baltimore could very well swing a deal due to the current status of each club and of course, the mutual admiration of their top executives.

"He's very intelligent, and a good person," Dombrowski said. "I don't know that a lot of people always get to know him really well because he's sort of quiet and to himself. But when you get to know him, he's a tremendous person. You could always tell he had a bright future."

"Jerry Manuel said it best," Duquette said, "Dave can step on your shoes and not mess up your shine. Dave knows the right thing to do and he has good values. So he does the right thing. That's a really good combination."