Baseball needs to fix their playoff schedule. I realize it is driven by TV money but this is ridiculous. Arizona will play game 1, have an off day, play game 2 and have another off day. I think they then play games 3, 4 and 5 in a row. This means that Johnson can start game 1 and have his normal 4 days rest for game 4. Schilling can start game 2 and have 3 days rest for game 5. This is the same setup that the Astros and Padres had a few years ago which allowed Kevin Brown to pitch games 1 and 3. All series should be set up similar to the regular season where you need to expose at least 4 starters.
While TV has a huge role to play in this it's more than that. People are paying a lot of money for playoff seats (min $25). The perception is that the people paying for these tickets WANT to see Johnson and Schilling rather than a 3, 4 or 5 starter.
Refman...I think that has very little to do with it. The teams that draw good crowds are going to almost sell out or sel out their playoff games regardless of who is pitching. It has everything to do with TV. More televised games = more tv revenue
The TV outlets would televise these games regardless. In case you haven't noticed, the games aren't exactly in good TV timeslots (during the day in the middle of the week). There is a perception in baseball that fans care more about seeing certain players than they are in the teams. Amongst casual fans that very well may be true.
