The 8 games at end of the season will be participated by every team, but, seats are sold before the season starts. The best 2 teams play each other in each division and there is bound to be some real good series. Times of the games are determined on how close the division races are for television. It is possible that a 3rd place team ends up winning the division or the wild card so those games could be meaningful. Since these tickets are for sale before the season starts and you think your team is likely to play significant games in October these games will sell more tickets. It is likely that a first place team will face a second place team in the same division in the second round of the playoffs. Where you are at game 154 in the standings is important so it may seem to many that there are 2 endings to the regular season. Games 155-162 are part of the regular season stats, but stats would be published/kept for those 8 games. The divisions that are tight at game 154 will have epic 8 game series to see who will make the playoffs. A manager will have to plan his pitching rotation for the last 8 games. A team up by 4 games will still need to win 3 of the final 8 games in order to win the division outright. A team up by 6 games will need to win at least 2 games out of 8 against the 2nd place club or have a possible one game playoff. Every year there will be 6 divisions in which the 1st place team is playing the 2nd place team at the of the regular season which does not happen now. And some of the 3rd place series might be significant in the years where the 3rd place team is only a couple of games out of the division or wild card spot.