MINNEAPOLIS - Normally, Pat Ward and Lois Miller follow the Twins by listening to Herb Carneal on the radio from their suburban Roseville homes but they made sure to attend Thursday's game at the Metrodome in person. They feared it might be the last game the Twins would play for awhile. And perhaps the last game, period.

"I'm afraid there will be a strike and I'm afraid the season will be done," said Ward, 71. "That's the reason we came here today. I'm afraid for the franchise. And if we lose baseball, it will devastating for the area."

This is the epicenter of baseball's economic dispute and Thursday's game between the Twins and Mariners matched two teams which traveled vastly different roads after the 1994 strike. The Mariners went from one of the poorest and least successful teams to one of its richest, a team that won a record 116 games last year and trailed only the Yankees in revenue generated. The Twins went from one of the most successful to one of the poorest, a team dependent on revenue sharing and earmarked for contraction last winter.

The Twins were three years removed from their second world championship, two years removed from a pennant race and one year removed from St. Paul native Dave Winfield's 3,000th hit when the 1994 strike began. That strike hit them harder than any other U.S. team. Attendance plunged nearly 50 percent as the team plunged further into a long and dismal era of losing seasons.

But now they've finally climbed back. Despite the contraction threat, the Twins hold a 16½ game lead in the American League Central and are all but guaranteed a playoff spot -- if there are playoffs. Attendance is on the rise: they drew 31,414 Wednesday night and had a big crowd again Thursday.

No wonder Ward worried about a possible strike and how it would ruin the season.

"I think a strike would hurt us real bad," she said. "If they settle quickly it will be all right but the Twins are doing so well, it would just be a crime if they don't. And (commissioner Bud) Selig still says they're going to cut four teams."

The economic plan of increased revenue sharing and luxury taxes that the owners and players are negotiating would benefit the Twins, who have battled to stay competitive with richer teams, while taking more money from the Mariners, who have worked hard to build themselves into a model franchise.

With negotiations were continuing in New York, fans and both teams went about their business under a large degree of uncertainty. Mariners catcher Dan Wilson wanted to know whether the Cubs would hold batting practice if there was no deal by Friday's deadline -- Chicago's afternoon game would be the first one cancelled due to a strike -- while Twins union representative Denny Hocking expressed confidence there would be a settlement to the dispute and no strike.

Hocking said Wednesday night he was so optimistic there would be a deal that he planned to have his family fly out to Oakland for the weekend series. He prepared for the game as he normally would and talked enthusiastically about his fantasy league football team.

"We have sort of a reverse revenue-sharing system," he said of his league. "The teams that do poorly share their revenue with the teams that win. Teams that win are rewarded. Being that I was in our Super Bowl last year, I spent some of my revenue sharing money. I invested in the team. I bought helmets for the team. Or, at least, I bought a helmet and I put the team logo on it.

"I make light of it but if only (the baseball dispute) was as easy as that."

Unlike other teams that have altered travel plans, both teams were scheduled to fly out after the game as they normally would; the Mariners home to Seattle and the Twins to Oakland for a three-game series with the Athletics -- with nobody knowing whether there would be games in those cities come Friday.

When the players struck in 1994, the Twins walked off the field not knowing whether they would play again that season. Kent Hrbek walked off not knowing whether he had played the final game of his career (he had). And the fans didn't know whether to boo or cheer.

That could be the situation again when today's game ends.

"I think there are enough fans who've voiced that opinion that if they're walking the line on whether to buy tickets, they'll buy tickets to another sport that they can rely on,'" said Joy Lester, a New Hampshire resident who was attending her first Twins game. "We're NASCAR fans and they haven't had a strike."

"Not yet," added her husband, Larry.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com. He can be reached at cuffscaple@hotmail.com.