I think the same thing happened to me after I finally made it through 162 game season about 4 years ago with the A's. I played every game and at the end of the season I was tied with the Rays for the wild card and played a 1 game playoff to make the post-season. Of course I lost by 1 run. But the last 6 weeks or so of the regular season was probably the most fun I've ever had playing a sports video game, because every game seemed and turned out to be so important. I have found it hard to re-create that since, like it just took the wind out of my sails. I'm going for 162 again this year though.