The difference between baseball and just about any other sport is that with other sports, almost every game has meaning. Case in point: NFL teams play 16 regular season games. Every game counts, because just one game is worth 6.25% of the season.

But with Major League Baseball? They play 162 games. That’s ten times as much. So if an NFL team has an 0-7 record, it’s pretty much impossible for them to make it to the playoffs, but if a MLB team starts out with an 0-7 record, it is totally possible for them to make it to the postseason.

That’s why tonight’s game is fun to watch: It’s the first baseball game of the year that actually determines something based on the outcome of this one game. I know if the Cubs had won one more game, they would have gotten home field advantage, but that wasn’t one game where you could watch and think “If they win THIS game….”

But tonight’s game? The team that loses is done until spring training, their quest for a trophy is over. The team that wins gets to move on and play the Royals. This is what makes tonight’s game exciting.

But I confess, as a Cubs fan, I am mostly looking forward to the game tomorrow night that means something, the one where (hopefully) the Cubs beat the Pirates to get the opportunity to go up against the MLB team with the best record in baseball:  the St Louis Cardinals.