As the clock continues to tick toward another Major League Baseball player’s strike, MSU athletes and coaches ponder the future of America’s pastime.

“I’m not going to lie to you, I’d be very upset if they strike,” senior MSU infielder Charlie Braun said.

“It won’t change my feelings on the sport of baseball, but it just shows me the owners and players aren’t very in tune with what baseball is all about.”

“I won’t go to games next year if they do strike.”

After five bargaining sessions Wednesday and three on Thursday, each side remained apart on the key issues: levels for a luxury tax and revenue sharing. Other unresolved issues were the owners’ desire to fold two teams and the expiration date of any new settlement.

A fourth session began just after 6:30 p.m. Thursday. The union’s executive board scheduled its second conference call of the day for 11 p.m.

There was no set time for the start of a strike on Friday, which would be the sport’s ninth work stoppage since 1972. The first game affected would be St. Louis at Chicago, which is scheduled to begin at 3:20 p.m. Fourteen games are scheduled tonight.

Major League Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig said the sides are both reaching out on the issues, but he can’t tell if a deal is close to being reached.

Spartan baseball manager Ted Mahan said he remains hopeful the issues will be solved but realizes how devastating another strike could be.

“I’m optimistic, and I hope they can do whatever they need to do,” Mahan said. “We love watching baseball, and I think it would hurt the game overall if they strike.”

Mahan also added that baseball was somewhat of a medicine for people last year following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“When people started getting back to normal after that day, I think baseball helped the situation along,” he said. “You’d rather see things normal, and on that day, that includes baseball. If there isn’t baseball, I think everything stops.”

Last season, professional sporting events following Sept. 11 were postponed. This year, it was expected for baseball to be leader as sports teams take the field on the one-year anniversary.

“I can’t imagine having Sept. 11 without any baseball - can you?” Braun said. “ I think that’d be a tragedy, an insult to America.

“Somebody has to step up and say, ‘We have to have baseball on Sept. 11.’”

The key argument is over the levels of increased revenue sharing and the luxury tax. Selig, upset in recent years by the domination of the New York Yankees and other wealthy teams, wants to increase the amount of locally generated revenue teams share from 20 percent to 36 percent. Players have proposed 33.3 percent and want to phase in the increase.

“We’re just going to keep working,” said Bob DuPuy, baseball’s chief operating officer. “I’ve been prepared to stay for the night all week.

“Of course there is an increase in sense of urgency,” he said. “No one wants to lose a single game or a single day of games.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.