Earlier this week, I edited Wade Tatangelo’s Bar Tab column — which I do every week, and try not to when I’m hung over — where he told the story of ending up at a sports bar in Seminole Heights at 4 p.m. last Sunday.

That’s when, you may remember, the Tampa Bay Rays were playing their third playoff game (ever) against the Chicago White Sox, and the Tampa Bay Bucs were squaring off with the Denver Broncos.

Before those games, I alleged small-market fan abuse. If the N.Y. Giants had a game, would Major League Baseball schedule a Yankees or Mets playoff game directly opposite it? No chance.

But I, as they say, digress.

When Wade and a buddy showed up at the Dugout Tavern in Seminole Heights, the two big screen TVs were showing the Bucs — even the one with “Rays” taped under it. Another set was showing a NASCAR race. The only place the baseball game was showing was on a small set above a booth in the back. And no one was watching it.

That got me really wondering.

This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2008.

Eric Snider is the dean of Bay area music critics. He started in the early 1980s as one of the founding members of Music magazine, a free bi-monthly. He was the pop music critic for the then-St. Petersburg...