A consumer’s guide to the best and worst of sports media and merchandise. Ground rules: If it can be read, played, heard, observed, worn, viewed, dialed or downloaded, it’s in play here.

What: Barry Halper Baseball Memorabilia Internet and live auction preview

Where: Sotheby’s, 9665 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills

When: Today, 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

Ever wanted to own a piece of baseball history? This is your chance. Sotheby’s of New York, the famous auction house, is auctioning off a large collection of baseball memorabilia in New York and on the Internet next week and has some of the items available for the public to see now.

More than 100,000 items will be auctioned off later this month, but today is your last chance to look at the items before bidding.

Some of the highlights:

Two uniforms worn by Lou Gehrig in 1927 (estimated value: $75,000); Joe DiMaggio’s uniform from the San Francisco Seals in 1933 ($50,000); Mickey Mantle’s Triple Crown trophy from 1956 ($25,000); DiMaggio’s 1951 World Series ring ($25,000); Mantle’s 1956 World Series ring ($25,000).

But there is one item in particular that stands out. In 1946, the year before he broke the color barrier, Jackie Robinson, along with many other black players, was sent a questionnaire by the American Baseball Bureau. The questionnaire, along with Robinson’s handwritten answers, is among the items to be auctioned.

When asked his “ambition in baseball,” Robinson replied: “To open the door for Negroes in organized ball.”

The questionnaire is an amazing piece of American history, not only baseball history, and has an estimated value of $20,000.

The viewing in Beverly Hills today will include more than 100 items and could be a good way to spend your lunch hour if you are a baseball fan. Sure, a lot of the items are expensive, but it costs nothing to look at them, and any baseball fans will thank themselves if they take an hour to immerse themselves in the sport’s history.

The live auction begins Sept. 23 in New York, and there will be an Internet auction later this fall (https://sothebys.amazon.com).

To order a catalog featuring all of the memorabilia up for bid, call (800) 444-3709. The catalog costs $96.00. The material comes in three bound volumes and weighs 10 pounds, so you might want to warn your mailman after you order.