Wow! That was a lot of baseball to watch. The Cubs and Brewers this week completed two series in Chicago and Milwaukee, 7 games in 10 days! As the final out was recorded, the Brewers had won 5 of 7 securing their NL Central dominance. The fans of both teams had awaited this early September matchup all summer, but the Brew Crew’s August performance put them 8 games ahead before it started. The home ballparks are just 90 miles away connected by Interstate 94. It’s become quite the new rivalry in baseball, and yet it remains the oldest rivalry in professional football. I had to smile over the past two weeks when I heard the chants of “Green Bay sucks” in the ballpark crowds. Let’s take a look at baseball rivalry.

For more than a century, the Cubs hated rivals have been the Cardinals. The rivalry of these two teams, about 300 miles apart separated by Interstate 55, goes back to 1885 when the Cubs (then called the White Stockings) faced the Cardinals (known then as the Browns) in games played in Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and Cincinnati. The ballclubs have played more than 2,500 times, with the Cubs leading the all-time series 1,295 to 1,241. One of my fondest memories is the 1984 “Sandberg Game”. The Cubs trailed 9-8 in the bottom of the ninth and faced former Cub and future Hall of Famer, Bruce Sutter, on the mound. Ryne Sandberg tied the game with a home run, the Cardinals put two more runs on the board in the 10th, Sandberg tied it again with a two-run shot in the bottom of the tenth. The Cubs won it in the 11th inning as Bob Costas exclaimed, “Do you believe it?”

Fourteen years later, in 1998, a home run race between a Cardinal, Mark McGwire, and a Cub, Sammy Sosa, is said to have revitalized baseball in the aftermath of the players’ strike in 1994. Prior to the season Roger Maris held the all-time season home run record of 61. Both McGwire (70 HRs) and Sosa (66 HRs) shattered the record in 1998. In August and September that year, ESPN followed both players’ every at-bats on national television. One of the biggest moments was in early September before a sold-out Busch Stadium crowd in St. Louis. McGwire broke the record with #62 off Cubs pitcher, Steve Trachsel. With a great display of sportsmanship, Sosa hugged his rival after McGwire trotted around the bases.

Two other storied MLB rivalries are the Dodgers vs. Giants (NL) and Red Sox vs. Yankees (AL). The NL rivalry dates back to 1890 when both teams were in New York. In 1957, Brooklyn Dodgers owner Walter O’Malley stunned baseball as he moved his club across the continent to Los Angeles. He persuaded Giants owner Horace Stoneham to follow the path to California where they landed in San Francisco. Incredibly, the teams are currently tied all-time, regular season and playoffs, at 1,294 to 1,294! On the AL side, Boston and New York have been battling it out for 120 seasons. Probably the pivotal moment came after the 1918 season when the Red Sox sold Babe Ruth to the Pinstripers, defining the fortunes of both clubs for about a century. New York has a substantial lead in the all-time series (1,270 wins and 1,056 losses).

Since the advent of interleague play, the MLB has featured “Rivalry Weekend” where city rivalries take center stage. The “Subway Series” features the Yankees and the Mets. After the NL expanded in 1962 and the Mets arrived to town, the two teams played exhibition games with the winner to receive the “Mayor’s Trophy”. In 2000, the first Subway Series in the World Series since 1956 (Yankees vs. Dodgers) captured the Big Apple. In Chicago, the Cubs and White Sox rivalry began in 1906 when the AL’s “Hitless Wonders” beat the Cubbies in six games. While there were several exhibition contests (mostly called the “Windy City Classic”) played until interleague play began, the games that count again are remarkably close with the Cubs leading 81 to 80! The “Freeway Series” out west between the Dodgers and Angels began as exhibition contests in 1962. The Angels surprisingly hold the series lead, 82-78.

Rivalry Weekend also features a couple across the state rivalries. About 240 miles separate the Cardinals and Royals and their cities in Missouri. St. Louis has dominated the interleague play between them, leading 78-53. Hall of Famer Whitey Herzog was at the center of both teams’ success. Herzog led the AL Royals through some glory years in the late 1970s, then took control of the Cardinals in the early 1980s building an NL top team. In the 1985 World Series, Whitey’s former and current teams met with Kansas City winning in seven games. The “Battle of Ohio” between the Reds and Guardians is another matchup of two ends of a state. Indeed, one can trace the first game between the two franchises to July 2, 1869, when the Cincinnati Red Stockings defeated Forest City, a team in Cleveland. Cleveland leads the all-time series, 76-62.

So how do you call Cubs vs. Brewers a rivalry when Milwaukee will soon be capturing its fourth straight NL Central title over the Cubs? Try going to one of the games. The crowds are absolutely raucous, so much so that the Brewers’ American Family Field is often called “Chicago North”. In comparing the teams, the Cubs offense is superior. Chicago leads the NL in runs scored, HRs, and runs differential. On the defensive side, the Cubbies put on the field three 2025 NL Gold Glovers (Crow-Armstrong, Happ, and Hoerner), not to mention a 2024 AL Gold Glove winning third baseman (Alex Bregman) and the steady shortstop Dansby Swanson (2022 and 2023 NL Gold Gloves). WAR (wins above replacement) tells the same story as the Cubs feature 3 of the top 25 in baseball (PCA, Bregman and Seiya Suzuki).

How does Milwaukee do it then? Pitching, especially relief pitching. The Brewers have the #2 ranked pitching staff in baseball featuring a 3.47 ERA. Chicago’s staff is middle of the road, at #16 with a 4.17 ERA. On the relief side, Milwaukee sports a 3.15 ERA compared to Chicago’s 4.01. This has made a huge difference in close ballgames. It’s pretty much count it a W if the Brewers lead going into the seventh inning of a game. The usual lineup is Abner Uribe in the seventh inning, lefty Aaron Ashby in the 8th, and closer Trevor McGill in the ninth. Along with fellow relievers Chad Patrick and DL Hall, the Brew Crew’s relief corps fits the definition of “lights out”. And oh, I forgot about the ace of the staff, Jacob Misiorowski (14-5, 1.97 ERA), a shoe in for the NL Cy Young.

Yeah, but Green Bay still sucks! Included in the history of Wrigley Field is the changing of the color of the iconic Marquee near the corner of Clark and Addison. You see, the Bears and Packers played football at Wrigley every season but one (1922) from 1921 to 1970 before Chicago left for Soldier Field. In 1934, the Marquee was painted mallard green with gold trim when it was first installed. Due to the objections of Bears team owner and head coach, George Halas (“those are Packers colors”), the Marquee was repainted blue in 1936. As the present day Brewers and Cubs head to the NL playoffs in two weeks, both teams anticipate an NLDS rematch between the new rivals. It will be interesting to see which club might be feeling blue after the series.

Until next Monday,

your Baseball Bench Coach