MLB: The '1 Game Wild Card Playoff' - The Biggest Middle Finger in Western Civilization

It rendered the last few weeks meaningless.  The division winner and the WC leader behind them could switch spots and all it would mean is one less home game for the WC.  They'd rest their entire team.  Winning the WC essentially put you right alongside the division winners back then.  There was no reason to push to win the division if you had the WC. 

Now, you definitely want to win the division and not be faced with a one-game do or die scenario.   If you want to argue about records and whatnot, or about a great division where the WC winner is actually better than the other 2 division winners, that's fair, but it definitely used to be that once you had the WC spot secured, you coasted and rendered everyone's games worthless for the balance of the season.  Can't do that anymore.