If you missed the story in Sports Wednesday, here are all the details that will entice even museum goers who are clueless about the nation's pastime.

Inside the show, organized by the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum in Cooperstown, lies one of the sport's most holy relics.

At the back of the main gallery, a diminutive piece of paper measuring about 2 1/4-by-3 1/8 inches stands under a small spotlight. It's likely to be the biggest single draw for visitors over the next four months.

Against a pumpkin orange background, the card shows the head and shoulders of a dark-haired man with a determined gaze and a not-so-diminutive nose. The type along the bottom edge of the card reads simply: Wagner, Pittsburg.

It's been called the "King of Cards" and the "Mona Lisa of Baseball Cards."

It may not be the rarest, but it has certainly earned the title as most expensive baseball card in American history.

About 60 copies of the Honus Wagner T206 baseball card, printed in 1909 to promote a tobacco company, are known to exist. Only six or so qualify as museum quality. The most valuable one sold for $1.26 million on eBay in 2000.

The Honus Wagner card on view in Oakland comes to the museum as part of "Baseball as America," a four-year, 10-city traveling exhibition. The show closes in Oakland Jan. 22, makes a final stop in Detroit in March, then slides home to Cooperstown in September.

It took seven trucks to deliver the 520 pieces in the show to the Oakland Museum. They range from a 1903 baseball used at the first modern World Series to a 2004 cap worn by Boston Red Sox centerfielder Johnny Damon. Damon hit a first-inning home run that set the pace for his team's first World Series victory in 86 years.

Want to find out whether Abner Doubleday really invented baseball?

Dying to see Babe Ruth's Louisville Slugger?

Craving a glimpse of the trophy Lou Gehrig's New York Yankees teammates gave him when he left the game?

It may sound sacrilegious to some, but after touring "Baseball as America" less pious baseball fans may decide to skip the pilgrimage to Cooperstown.

For sports buffs who live on the West Coast, making the trek to the Baseball Hall of Fame involves a cross-country flight to New York City, followed by a four-hour drive upstate. Those who lack the means or will power to make the official journey will get a satisfying baseball fix with a visit to the traveling show.

"We'll probably get a non-traditional art museum audience, (people who are) a little more interested in pop culture and history," says Mark Medeiros, acting executive director for the Oakland Museum. "We'll probably get a wider family audience."

Bay Area visitors also will appreciate local touches added for the Oakland exhibition, such as photos of Toni Stone, a member of the San Francisco Sea Lions and the first woman to play in the Negro Leagues. Also on display is memorabilia from the Pacific Coast League, including a 1955 home plate from the Oaks Baseball Park.

Two companion exhibitions will focus on "The Latino Baseball Story: Photographs by Jos Luis Villegas" and "Oakland's Coach: The Legacy of George Powles."

About the only things missing in "Baseball as America" are the smell of dust and spilled beer and the shouts of vendors hawking peanuts and CrackerJacks.

The multi-sensory exhibition provides plenty of video clips and audio snapshots to remind visitors of the sights and sounds of an actual ball game.

Near the gallery entrance, curators even have built a pitcher's mound.

On an old-time recording, a singer croons "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" in a section of the show called "Rooting for the Team." Here, we also hear recordings of fans cheering and booing and the familiar opening musical beats "Da-da-DUH-da, da-da-DUH-da!" from the Queen song, "We are the Champions."

In an introductory section of the show called "Our National Spirit," a TV screen flashes a collage of images, from the Jackson 5 singing the "Star-Spangled Banner" to John F. Kennedy tossing out the traditional presidential first pitch. The actual ball thrown and signed by JFK and seven other presidents, from William Taft to George Bush, make up a row in one display case.

Visitors don't need to be baseball fanatics to get something out of the show. Anyone who's followed the news even lightly over the past few years or decades will recognize key players and events surrounding the game.

"Baseball's very pervasive in America," says Eric Stroll, curator for research and education at the Baseball Hall of Fame. "It's in tune with our history. Anything you want to learn about, you can learn (through baseball). You want to learn about business in America? What's (happening) with race, ethnicity, gender?"

As it reflects the state of our society in a given era, baseball has been an excellent mirror, a mirror that frequently shows our warts along with our beauty marks.

"The integration of African Americans into the game was a way race relations played out publicly," Medeiros says. "They weren't talking about who was the first (African-American) attorney or office manager. After Sept. 11, public healing happened with the singing of the national anthem and (commemorative) patches on players' uniforms."

Baseball's power to heal has sometimes been tempered by its power to wound.

One section of the exhibition, "Ideals and Injustices," includes Roberto Clemente baseball cards from the 1960s that referred to him as "Bob," an 1882 editorial cartoon depicting an African-American umpire and players with racially stereotyped features such as exaggerated lips, and 1996 photos of protesters opposing the use of Native American figures as team mascots.

Nearby, the "Enterprise and Opportunity" section delves into the labor struggles and money-making aspects of the game. Eager to cash in on baseball mania, advertisers figured out early the benefits of associating their products with the national pastime and its star players.

The legendary Christy Mathewson appears in a beautifully-rendered illustration from the Royal Tailors' merchants catalog and the entire 1987 roster of the "World Champion" Minnesota Twins show up on a box of Wheaties.

When he pays a visit to "Baseball as America," Gene Sunnen, 56, of Oakland will keep an eye out for all things Babe.

"The mythical figure of baseball is Babe Ruth," says Sunnen, president of the Bay Area chapter of the Society for American Baseball Research. "He's Paul Bunyan. He's Hercules. He's an heroic figure. To be close to an object he held would be of great interest."

Sunnen says he was never a big baseball player himself, but he treasures memories of attending games with his father.

"My dad took me to baseball games, just the two of us," Sunnen says. "I really did feel there was something being passed on. In later years, when he was recovering from a broken hip, we celebrated by going to a Cardinals game."

Parents who want to pass on their love for the game to their children will find a few spots in the exhibition where kids can keep their hands busy. A row of touch-screen computers will let them look up trivia, such as hall of famers from the Bay Area such as Dennis Eckersley and Joe DiMaggio.

"There are a couple hands-on things where they can pick up the balls and they can test a grip on how to throw a curve ball and a fast ball," Medeiros says. "And there are bats you can pick up... and see the different weights different players preferred."

Who knows? A trip with Mom and Dad to "Baseball as America" may help cultivate a future generation of baseball pilgrims who one day will line up with their children to peer with awe at the 1909 Honus Wagner T206.

Says the Hall of Fame's Stroll: "Nothing's better than baseball in terms of being passed down from generation to generation."

- The Oakland Museum of California is at 10th and Oak streets in Oakland, two blocks from the Lake Merritt BART station. Hours are 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays; noon to 5 p.m. Sundays; open to 9 p.m. the first Friday of each month. Admission is $5 to $8; free for children 5 and younger. Call (510) 238-2200 or visit http://www.museumca.org.

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