THE WRITING ON (AND OFF) THE WALL OUR PASTIME ISN'T HISTORY YET, IS IT?

Byline: TOM HOFFARTH

Inside the grand foyer of the Natural History Museum, there are the gigantic skeletons of a Tyrannosaurus rex and a triceratops duking it out. Hang a left.

Go past the Cenozoic fossils room, across from the ancient Aztec pyramid exhibit, but not too far or you'll hit the water-filled glass tank with the mummified Megamouth shark.

Go down the hall past the stuffed African mammals, around the stairwell that leads to the massive ichtyology collection.

Then, when you get to the largest known ammonite - it's this thing about 6 1/2-feet wide and looks like a giant snail, so you can't miss it - veer right.

That's where you'll find baseball.

Baseball cultural connection

The scholars at the National Baseball Hall of Fame, which has been celebrating the game's achievements in Cooperstown, N.Y., since 1939, decided for the first time to send a traveling antique road show across the country.

It's really a wide variety of stuff, about 500 items from the rarest of rare bats and balls and gloves and caps to the costume worn by the San Diego Chicken.

And it's all wrapped around the theme ``Baseball As America,'' an attempt to make a connection between the sport and the cultural evolution of our country over the past century and a half.

This treasure trove, open to the public Sunday and staying put through mid-December, will be housed at the brick museum in Exposition Park, just across from another baseball landmark known as the Coliseum, where the Dodgers had their first home when they landed in L.A. in 1958.

Actually, it's a pretty a cool place for old-timers like you and me to hang out and revisit our childhood. Look, there's the yellow metal lunch box we had in '68 with the magnetic game on the back.

But wait a sec.

Aren't we supposed to be trying to convince today's kids that this thing we keep calling the national pastime actually has a future? So why do we keep shoving the ``good old days'' down their throats? And worse, why are we making them celebrate some of the game's most precious artifacts in this, of all places, where things that are supposed to be extinct live?

(It's not a museum, it's a mausoleum, I remember a friend telling me once during a first-grade field trip while we held hands because our teacher said if we didn't we'd get lost and might get locked in the place. I had no idea what he was talking about. I do now. He was pretty right on).

In a strange way, this is probably the best place to find curious kids, according to those in charge.

``Maybe having it here in a museum seems wrong, but it's really the perfect place,'' said Dale Petroskey, the Hall's president who came out for a sneak preview of the exhibit Friday morning.

First off, the tour's first stop for five months at the American Museum of Natural History in New York set an attendance record, Petroskey noted. The seven-city tour includes the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., in 2004.

``This is an anthropological look at how baseball is a reflection of us,'' he said. ``Much like how the pyramids of Egypt tell is about those people, baseball tells us how Americans live.''

But will the kids dig it?

``This is a natural and cultural history museum,'' said Jane Pisano, the president and director of the joint that brings in about 240,000 school kids a year for tours. ``We make cultural history an important element. It tells a story. Kids can relate to that. Then it might register for them to come back.

``I know my kids have related to Dodger Stadium for years living here. I remember times in the summer when we'd just be sitting down to dinner and my husband would say, `Let's go to a game,' and we'd just leave the food on the table and head out.''

I tried to get my kids to go to a museum once when were about to eat. They just kept eating.

Tough to get through

On the lawn outside the museum Friday morning, Duke Snider had a dozen or so teen-agers who play in the inner-city semi-captivated.

``I used to ride my bike from Compton, where I grew up, all the way to Wrigley Field just a few blocks from here to see the Los Angeles Angels of the Pacific Coast League,'' said the former Brooklyn Dodgers Hall of Famer, who must have looked like part of the exhibit to the kids. ``Once I saw the Angels play the San Francisco Seals, who had Joe DiMaggio.''

The magical name of DiMaggio wasn't really registering with the teen-agers.

``Hey, when I played, we left the gloves out on the field,'' Snider continued. ``We didn't have batting helmets. Or sweat bands. Or hair dryers in the clubhouse.''

That, at least, got a laugh.

No one said it'd be easy to keep young minds focused on this game. But if bringing them out to Fossilville works, we'll give it a try.

``My dad has a ball signed by DiMaggio, and he's one of my favorite players,'' said 9-year-old Jeffrey Price of Culver City, who was there dressed in his complete Orioles Little League uniform - with glove.

His favorite part of the trip?

``My dad's taking me to the science center (down the block) after this - did you know they have a human body there?'' Jeffrey replied.

No, but can someone there explain how a curveball works?