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But You Have to Supply the Peanuts

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For the first time in its 63-year history, the Baseball Hall of Fame is taking its show on the road.

The “Baseball As America” exhibition opened last weekend at the American Museum of Natural History in New York for a six-month run before moving to nine other cities, including Los Angeles, over the next three years.

Among the 500 artifacts in the show are the Doubleday ball used in an 1839 game, a 1908 Thomas Edison recording of “Casey at the Bat,” “Shoeless” Joe Jackson’s shoes, Jackie Robinson’s jersey and a hate letter sent to Hank Aaron during his pursuit of Babe Ruth’s home run record.

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“It tells the story of baseball and how it helped shape American culture,” Aaron said at a preview.

The exhibition is a mini-version of the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., and features film clips of famous game moments, a progression of equipment, movie memorabilia and artwork.

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Trivia time: Who holds the record for points scored in an NCAA men’s basketball championship game?

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America’s team: The New England Patriots’ improbable Super Bowl victory over the St. Louis Rams was a memorable sports moment, one that football fans apparently can’t get enough of.

Steve Sabol, the head of NFL Films, told the Boston Globe that the video of the Patriots’ upset is already the greatest-selling sports video of all time.

“There is nothing before that compares to this,” Sabol said. “This video has already sold more than 500,000 copies. And before it’s over, with Father’s Day coming up, the sales could go over 600,000, which would double the sales of any other sports video in history.”

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Changed man: While in the minor leagues, Milton Bradley spit gum at an umpire and served a seven-game suspension for starting a brawl, earning a reputation as a troublemaker before coming to the Cleveland Indians in a trade last July.

But the 23-year-old Bradley, who is expected to replace Kenny Lofton as the Indians’ center fielder, says that’s all in the past.

“The way I was before is not the way I am,” he said.

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Sage preparation: Most soccer fans traveling to South Korea for the World Cup this summer probably won’t make time to visit herbal doctors. The herbalists are ready, though, just in case.

“We’ve been training our doctors and nurses in English, Japanese and Chinese since last March,” said Lee Kyu Hoon, a manager at KyungHee University Oriental Medicine Hospital. “The World Cup is a great chance to promote what we do, and we don’t want to miss out on the opportunity.”

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Trivia answer: Bill Walton of UCLA, 44, against Memphis in 1973. Walton made 21 of 22 shots from the field, also a championship-game record.

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And finally: With his mother at his side, former Olympic downhill champion Bill Johnson on Friday skied down the slope where he suffered near-fatal injuries during a nasty fall exactly one year ago.

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After starting gingerly, Johnson soon was skiing all out through a layer of fresh powder in Whitefish, Mont., leaving his mother, DB Johnson, and a string of reporters in his tracks.

“You’re skiing very fast,” DB Johnson told her son as she finally caught up to him.

“Thanks,” he answered. “You’re skiing very slow.”

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Rob Fernas

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