The number of people who consider themselves baseball fans has dipped to less than three in 10, the lowest level since the last strike ended in April 1995, according to a poll.

What ESPN.com users said

Earlier during the baseball season ESPN.com conducted its own poll, asking 40,714 registered users, "What sports do you watch or follow?" Major League Baseball was named by 78 percent of those surveyed, putting baseball second among major sports, behind only the NFL's 89 percent. Following baseball were college football (69 percent), college basketball (67), the NBA (64), the NHL (44) and NASCAR (19). Click here for additional results, sorted by state and by city. -- ESPN.com

Twenty-eight percent of those surveyed by ABC in a poll taken from Aug. 21 through Sunday said they are baseball fans. That matched the previous low of 28 percent, set in a poll just after the end of the 232-day strike in 1994-95 that wiped out the World Series for the first time in 90 years.

In March of this year, 44 percent said they were baseball fans.

Players have threatened to strike Friday if they don't have a labor deal by then, and they say owners have made proposals that would suppress salaries. Management contends changes are needed to increase competitive balance and slow salary increases.

Just before the last strike, about four in 10 said they were baseball fans and the percentage increased from its April 1995 low point to almost half of the public during the 1998 season, when Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa were challenging for the season home-run record.

Only a third of those who said they are baseball fans in the new poll said they would miss baseball a lot if there is a strike, and that translated to only one in 10 overall. Men, residents of the Northeast and those in the highest income group were most likely to say they would miss baseball.

When asked whether they were more sympathetic with players or owners, 38 percent of fans said owners and 26 percent said players, while another 30 percent said neither. A CNN-USA Today-Gallup poll late last week also found public sentiment leaned toward the owners.

The ABC poll of 1,036 adults had an error margin of plus or minus 3 percentage points, higher for subgroups such as baseball fans.