While the Cubs got the better of the Brewers in Monday night's opener of a four-game set at Miller Park, the series between Chicago and Milwaukee has been the most competitive and entertaining aspect of the Crew's five-year National League tenure.

The I-94 series began the year before the Brewers jumped leagues in 1998, starting with the advent of inter-league play in June 1997 at Wrigley Field. The Cubs took two out of three that weekend, but after Monday's game, the Brewers still lead the overall series, 41-37.

But it's not the overall ledger of wins and losses that distinguishes this series -- it's the character of individual games, comebacks and performances that make Cubs-Brewers contests unforgettable.

In chronological order, here are 10 of the most memorable games between the Cubs and Brewers.

June 13, 1997: Brewers 4, Cubs 2

Jose Valentin homers and knocks in three, Jeff D'Amico goes eight strong, and Doug Jones nails down his 15th save as the Brewers win their first game at Wrigley Field. How long ago was this? Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg and Jose Hernandez were all Cubs. The Cubs go on to win the final two games of the series.

July 10, 1998: Brewers 6, Cubs 5

Rookie sensation Kerry Wood fans 9 but falls to Bronswell Patrick and the Brewers, 6-5. The Brewers' batting order that Friday night: Fernando Vina, Mark Loretta, Jeff Cirillo, Jeromy Burnitz, Marquis Grissom, Dave Nilsson, Jose Valentin, Bobby Hughes. I'm still amazed they only cobbled together 74 wins that year.

Sept. 11-13, 1998: Cubs 37, Brewers 35

In the series' most insane 72 hours, the Brewers take a ho-hum 13-11 win on Friday afternoon and open up an 8-2 lead after three innings Saturday, punctuated by homers from Jeromy Burnitz, Geoff Jenkins and Bobby Hughes in the third. But, alas, it's Sammy Sosa's day, and he blisters his historic 60th down the left-field line in the seventh to fully ignite the comeback. Orlando Merced's three-run shot off Bob Wickman in the ninth caps a five-run frame and a shocking 15-12 Cub victory. Sunday, the Crew outdoes even that heartbreak by rallying from an 8-3 deficit to take a 10-8 lead into the last half-inning. Sosa cracks his second of day to start the rally -- and pass Roger Maris in the record books -- and the Cubs close out the script with a Grace homer in the 10th to win, 11-10. Dogs are simultaneously kicked from Oak Creek to Manitowoc.

Sept. 23, 1998: Brewers 8, Cubs 7

But greater woe awaits the Cubs. After building a 7-0 lead through six innings (Sosa hits Nos. 64 and 65 in the process), the Cubs cling to a 7-5 advantage with two outs and the bases full in the bottom of the ninth at County Stadium. Jenkins lofts a routine fly to left that Brant Brown circles under ... and drops, allowing all three runners to score, the Brewers to win, and the Cubs to fall into a tie with the Mets for the NL wild card with three games remaining (sidenote: they beat the Giants in a one-game playoff five days later, anyway). If you haven't heard Cubs radio broadcaster Ron Santo's call of this one, you have not yet lived.

June 29, 1999: Brewers 17, Cubs 6

In a night game at Wrigley, the Brewers score 11 runs in the first four innings on the way to a 17-6 rout. Until the All-Star break that year, the 1999 Crew flashed one of the most potent offenses in all of baseball.

July 1, 1999: Brewers 19, Cubs 12

The Brew Crew breaks out the bats again two days later, scoring 14 in the first four innings, including an eight-run outburst in the fourth. Ronnie Belliard and Nilsson both collect four hits behind starter Hideo Nomo. Yes, he played for the Brewers once.

May 8 and 10, 2000: Comebacks without wins

The series was wild before the millennium, but 2000 elevated it to toga status. On May 8, the Crew rallied from a 9-1 deficit, featuring a four-run ninth (including Burnitz's second HR of the day) -- only to fall in the 10th, 12-11. Two days later, the Brewers took a five-run lead with four more in the ninth -- then gave it all away in the bottom half (Henry Rodriguez's three-run homer with two out tied it; of course, I've suppressed the memory and will have to assume the box score is correct) and lost in the 11th, 9-8. In September at County Stadium, though, Milwaukee turned the box scores with back-to-back ninth-inning Ws.

July 1, 2000: Brewers 4, Cubs 0

It was a dreary summer to close out County Stadium, but Jeff D'Amico was one of the best pitchers in the NL for a precious few months. On this night, he limited Eric Young and Willie Greene to singles for the Cubs -- and nothing more. His two-hit shutout was part of a 12-7, 2.66 season.

May 25, 2001: Cubs 1, Brewers 0

In a series little known for pitching, Wood out-did D'Amico's fine effort 11 months later with a one-hit gem on a windy day at Wrigley. Loretta's clean single saves the Brewers the ignominy of getting no-hit in one of baseball's slugging-est rivalries. Wood racks up 14 strikeouts.

June 24, 2001: Brewers 6, Cubs 3

Rookie phenom Ben Sheets improves to 9-4 on the way to an All-Star berth, and the Brewers complete a three-game sweep at Wrigley to move four games over .500 (38-34). A triumphant onmilwaukee.com writer gloats over the sweep, never suspecting the team is on the verge of its worst two-year stretch in franchise history. But I wasn't the only one -- the notorious "sweep suits" the team wore upon leaving the yard belied a gruesome fate.

June 4 & 5, 2002: Returning the favor

For some reason, the '02 Brewers -- not a very good team by any estimation -- had the Cubs' number, beating them 10 out of 17 tries. But these two games in June summed up both the '02 rivalry and the overall series. The Brewers score twice in the ninth on the way to a 6-5 win in 11 innings on June 4, only to see Moises Alou tie up the game with two dead in the ninth the next night on the way to a 5-1 Cubs' win in 10.

I guess that's more than 10 games. And there have been a bunch of other great ones -- Burnitz (who owned the Cubs while in Milwaukee) hitting three homers at Miller Park in 2001, several other late-inning and extra frame contests in 2000, Glenallen Hill's homer onto a Waveland Avenue rooftop ... all the way down to the Brewers' 9-6 win the night the lights went out in Wrigley last week. By this Thursday, another chapter is sure to have been added.