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10 Greatest Cubs-Brewers Games

Chris Jaffe posted 8/27/2007 from ballhype.com

When you think great rivalries, certain match-ups come to mind. Yankees vs. Red Sox. Dodgers vs. Giants. Mets vs. Humanity.

No one ever thinks of Cubs-Brewers, and for some very good reasons. They've only been in the same league for a decade, hardly enough time to build up the great storied rivalries that are part of the game's lore. Even more importantly, since the merger the teams haven't been very good. Oh sure, the Cubs nearly made the Series once, but it takes two to tango and in most seasons neither of these teams are dancing much in July, let alone October.

But you know what? Strange as it may sound, it's actually been one of the game’s better rivalries in recent years. The games have rarely meant a damn thing, but good God, they've packed in more enjoyable baseball play over the last ten years than anyone could reasonably expect.

Especially in the early years of the Brewers' National League-dom, these teams couldn't seem to go a series without having at least one contest so wild and woolly that you had to leave the park grinning ear to ear. They featured amazing comebacks trumped by amazinger comebacks, highlighted by amazingest plays. The signature of a Cubs-Brewers game had action, drama and several helpings of bullpen flambé.

As a Cubs' fan growing up in the 1980s, the Cards were the rivalry I always heard about from your elders. The Mets were the rivalry I passionately felt because well, they were the 1980s Mets. Buncha jerks. But in recent years the Brewers have easily been the most enjoyable rivalry. The fact that it gets no attention whatsoever just adds to its mystique for me. It's this private little gem, that hasn't yet been forced into the cold dead hands of the dunderfucks at ESPN.

Well this year, they actually have something to play for. Mind you, one would never guess it given the way these two squads have performed lately. But, unless they continue to play like poo down the stretch, this week's series will go a long way to determining the best team in the worst division of the game's inferior league. Hey - you take what glory you can get.

In that spirit, I present the 10 greatest Cubs-Brewers games of all-time. And, because I haven't taken a math class since high school, my Top Ten list contains - get this - 17 games. Really. There's so many games I wanted to get in, and since several series contained multiple epic contests, I just smushed some games together into one entry.

At any rate, it's immaterial if you want to consider it 10 greatest moments or 17 greatest games. The key here: big heaping gobs of fun baseball.

10. May 19, 2002. Cubs 5, Brewers 4 (11). A perfectly routine game through 7 innings suddenly went crazy in the later innings. Actually, that was pretty routine for these two teams when they faced off back then. All too typical for the teams, they entered the day with a combined record of 27-56. No wonder they were so evenly matched.

9. May 25, 2001. Cubs 1, Brewers 0. In recent years, Kerry Wood's become something of a joke. The team kept lying to the media, the fans, and worst of all themselves about how close Wood (and Prior) were to being healthy again. Result: people are now more likely to think of Wood as a guy who is never healthy than a guy who could freakin' blow you away.

Games like this one showed what he was once capable of. Nine innings of shutout ball with 14 strikeouts and only 3 base runners. He had a no-hitter until the seventh and only one man made it as far as second base against him. It was the single most dominating performance by any pitcher in the Cubs-Brewers saga. In fact, in nearly 40 years of baseball for the club, it's the second best 9-inning game score ever tossed against Milwaukee. That he did it while staked to the slenderest possible lead makes it all the more memorable.

8. September 19 & 20, 2000. Brewers 9, Cubs 8. Brewers 3, Cubs 2 (10). From 1998-2000, the Brewers specialized in torturing Cub relievers. Granted, that was hardly distinctive of them, but they had the best flair for the dramatic. On the 19th, the Brewers first blew a 7-run lead before sneaking back into it when perennially underachieving Kyle Farnsworth couldn't get anyone out, and third baseman Shane Andrews forgot how to field.

Given how that game played out, you can see the next day's conclusion coming a mile in advance. The only distinctions were that Farnsworth was relieved just before the game-losing infield error was made. This time, it was normally sure-handed Mark Grace making the misplay.

7. September 17, 18 & 19, 1999. Cubs 6, Brewers 5 (10). Brewers 7, Cubs 4 (14). Cubs 8, Brewers 7 (10). Individually, none of these games were that great; especially not the first which was just a routine 10-inning game. Combined, they were something special. Rarely do teams so evenly match each other that every game in a series goes into overtime. Fittingly, they split the first two games, and the third went down to the last at bat.

The second game was a fine affair where the Brewers kept inching ahead only to have the Cubs sneak back even with them. They never did take the lead. The second game began as its inverse image, only the Brewers did wrestle away the lead late. This time the Cubs came back and finished the job.

6. July 5, 2004. Brewers 1, Cubs 0. Kerry Wood may have had the most dominating single performance, but this was the best pitchers' duel. After a first inning homer by Craig Counsell, only one other Brewer even made it to third base. For their parts the Cubs only had two men make it that far. Ben Sheets was the best pitcher with 12 K's over 7 innings, but the teams combined for 28 whiffs. From the fifth inning onward, the two teams sent the bare minimum three batters to the plate every half inning except once.

5. May 8 & 10, 2000. Cubs 12, Brewers 11 (10), Cubs 9, Brewers 8 (11). They actually played a nifty little game on May 9, but it wasn't in the same class as these affairs.

Like I said above: bullpen flambé, and plenty of it. First the Cubs blow a 4-run lead in the ninth inning. That's pretty bad. It's even worse when you realize they had a 3-run lead with two outs and no one on. The nicest thing you can say about their relievers was that they only walked in one run. Fortunately, the Brewers choked it right back.

Then two, days later, the Milwaukee 'pen played an inverted game of one-upmanship by blowing a 5-run lead in the ninth. It was the least they could go, given that the Cubs relievers had allowed 7 runs in the last two frames.

I once heard that reporters covering the 1947 World Series didn't think it was a particularly well-played October, but dammed if it wasn't one of the most riveting to watch. The same went for these forgotten spring contests from 7 years ago. Why it's enough to make one forget that heading into these games the teams were a combined 23-41 on the year.

4. April 17 & 18, 1999. Brewers 5, Cubs 4. Cubs 6, Brewers 5 (10). Under normal circumstances, the April 17 games would've been intensely painful. Given that it happened a few months after the Brewers inflicted one of the most painful defeats in memory on the Cubs (stay tuned, it's coming up), made this one that harder to swallow.

It also made the next day's victory that much sweeter. When Rod Beck blows a multi-run lead to the Brewers in the ninth, that should mean the Cubs lose. Instead, bailed out by a double play ball on a tenth inning homer, the Cubs showed some rather surprising spunk.

3. June 29, 2007. Cubs 6, Brewers 5. Here's an odd one. A Cubs-Brewers game that really meant something. It's so recent it hardly needs retelling, but a few key details. Going in, no one assumed the Brewers would collapse like they have this summer, so people felt the Cubs would need at least 2 wins to have a shot as Milwaukee already had a 7.5 game lead. A sweep should put the Cubs to bed.

All year long, the Cubs had problems with their bullpen. No lead seemed safe, as several games had been painfully blown. Shortly before, a drunk ran on the field to scream at Bob Howry when he allowed a lead-blowing homer (in a game the Cubs won).

Milwaukee meanwhile had a great bullpen, anchored by all-star closer Francisco Cordero. Since coming to Milwaukee from Texas the summer before his Brewer ERA was a superlative 1.95. The Cubs needed their starters to go deep, and they couldn't fall far behind.

Rich Hill gave up 5 runs in the first. He hit the showers after 3 innings. It was the worst case scenario. But the unthinkable happened. Chicago's much-maligned bullpen shut down the league's hottest offense. They scored nary a run. They couldn't even get to second base until the 9th.

Meanwhile, the Cubs chipped away at the lead. In the bottom of the ninth against the uber-closer, the Cubs finished the comeback, with Aramis Rameriz's 2-run walk-off homer ending the game.

Making the game even more important, the next day starter Ted Lilly got rocked even harder. Without the comeback, the Cubs lose the series. I have no idea who will win the NL Central this year - it could easily be the once-forgotten Cards. But if the Brewers lose to the Cubs, this will be the game to look back on.

2. September 23, 1998. Brewers 8, Cubs 7. In the popular consciousness, some sporting contests have been forever entwined with the announcer's calls. Whether it be Russ Hodges's orgasmic call of Bobby Thomson's home run, or Al Michaels's asking if we believe in miracles, the voice becomes part of the moment. This was one of those games.

From a purely technical point of view Cubs radio color man Ron Santo is the least qualified person to hold the job this side of Marlee Matlin. Well, that's unfair. To Matlin I mean - at least she has an excuse. Santo's just brutal.

But he's excused because he's such an enthusiastic homer. He spent his almost Hall of Fame caliber career with the squad, for many years the team captain. His celebratory heel-clicks in '69 are still remembered in Chicago. By 1998, he'd called their games for about a decade, and clearly on a very personal level wanted to see them actually win a damn pennant to make up for the misdeeds of the past.

1998 looked like it could be the year, as the Cubs desperately clung to their wild-card lead over those same dastardly Mets that ruined it for Santo and the Cubs a generation before. They staggered into Milwaukee, having just been swept by the Reds. They needed some wins.

It looked like an easy one for them. Paced by two Sosa dingers, the Cubs vaulted out to a seemingly insurmountable lead, 7-0 at the seventh inning stretch. Then the Brewers put up four in the seventh, and one more in the eighth.

In the ninth it looked like the crisis had been averted. Sure the Brew Crew loaded up the bases putting the winning run on first. But with two outs, Geoff Jenkins hit a lazy fly ball to left, where Bryant Brown - a late-game defensive replacement - camped under it.

And then . . . well, a simple factual rendition is that the ball clanked off Brown's glove. Since there were two outs runners were going. Because it was a slow-moving fly, all three scored.

But the drama on the field was more than matched by the pathos in the announcers' booth. With four little letters blurted out in less than a second, Ron Santo justified two decades of an otherwise incompetent job. With the muff, Santo blurted out an "OH NO!!" filled with 30 years of ruined hopes, and dashed dreams. The specter of '69 hung over him - the play was Don Young all over again, and it looked like the Mets would be the benefactors yet again. For one brief moment, it was Greek tragedy in the land of sausage races.

Instead, history didn't repeat itself. Well, I mean the Cubs didn't make the pennant of course, but this time they made it to October. Otherwise, this tragically would've been the greatest game on the list.

1. September 11, 12, & 13, 1998. Brewers 13, Cubs 11. Cubs 15, Brewers 12. Cubs 11, Brewers 10 (10). Completely ignoring the question of how important the games were for a second and focusing solely on the individual games themselves, this might be the greatest 3-game series the Cubs have ever participated in during their 137-year existence. That it happened in the midst of a pennant race for them makes it ever more remarkable.

All games saw lead changes, and plenty of action. Two ended on walk-off homers. The other ended with a .300 hitter at the plate representing the tying run. While three walk-off wins would've been more dramatic, this way it was a more balanced series. Both teams went scoreless in the same inning only four times. Usually when there's that much scoring, someone pulls ahead, and it gets dull. Not here. Not at all. The bigger the lead, the more tenuous it seemed. Both clubs blew their biggest leads. The Brewers frittered away an 8-run edge in the second game, and the Cubs did likewise with a 5-run advantage the next day.

My main memory of the games comes from the ninth inning of the final game. The Cubs had a legendary TV producer named Arnie Harris back then. He'd been there since the mid-1960s. Well, around the time Gary Gaetti singled in the tying run, color man Steve Stone told everyone that this was the most breathtaking series Arn had ever seen. No kidding.

It's fitting that such a wild series came between these two teams. I can't imagine I'll ever see another 3 games quite like that. But if the squads want to prove me wrong this week, I'll be more than happy to watch.