Brooklyn Dodgers jersey worn by Jackie Robinson. (National Baseball Hall of Fame photo)

Play Ball!

Life on the Road For Cooperstown/Smithsonian 'Baseball As America' Exhibit

The 2008 professional baseball season is underway and for those who love this sport, it's a time of great hope and expectations. This is the year our team will go the whole way, will win the series and be world champs, they say. While most fans will ultimately be disappointed, the love for the game goes on and on. There's always next year.

"Baseball is America" is the title of an exhibit assembled by the National Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York, and the Smithsonian Institute that has traveled throughout the country for the past several years. It's currently on view at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia until May 11 when it moves to Boston's Museum of Science for the summer months.

The exhibit appeals to a broad spectrum of the public‹from children playing catch for the first time to the lifelong fan‹and like the game itself, draws people of all ages and cultural heritages together. It's divided into seven sections titled Our National Spirit, Rooting for the Team, Sharing a Common Culture, Ideals and Injustices, Enterprise & Opportunity, Invention & Ingenuity, and Weaving Myths.

The show contains over 500 interesting artifacts. On view is the Doubleday Ball from the first game in 1839, the original manuscript for the song "Take Me Out To The Ballgame", Harry Caray's eyeglasses, and the San Diego Chicken's costume. There's also the Wonder Boy bat from the movie "The Natural", a baseball-themed lunch box, and a 1906 recording of the recitation of the poem "Casey At The Bat".

The exhibit also includes a 1907 edition of the History of Colored Baseball, Jackie Robinson's 1956 Brooklyn Dodgers jersey, and artifacts from the American Girls Professional Baseball League. Baseball card collectors will be interested to see the most valuable one in existence, the T206 Honus Wagner, the Pittsburgh Pirates shortstop.

There's also the earliest known catcher's mask and the bat used by Babe Ruth to hit his record-breaking 60th homerun in 1927. Visitors can also see the farewell trophy given Lou Gehrig by his Yankee teammates, dirt saved from the ground of Brooklyn's Ebbits Field, and shoes worn by Chicago White Sox "Shoeless" Joe Jackson.

At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, visitors can see memorabilia with special ties to the city. Artifacts from 19th century baseball in Philadelphia, the Negro Leagues, the Philadelphia A's (Athletics), and the Phillies are on view. There's even a World Series ring from the Phillies 1980 championship win.

Baseball is as American as apple pie. To learn more, view www.constitutioncenter.org and see www.gophila.com.