The beauty of the old ballgame: celebrating the National Pastime in paintings, sculpture, and, of course, baseball cards.

• Position: Museums Today

Since the mid 19th century, when the New York Knickerbockers played the first organized baseball games using modern-day rules, New York has been home to some of the sport's most successful and beloved teams. "The Old Ball Game: New York Baseball, 1887-1977," on view at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, includes nearly 400 baseball cards featuring players from various Big Apple clubs, from the New York Metropolitans and Brooklyn Bridegrooms of the old American Association to the National League's N.Y. Giants and Brooklyn Dodgers, and the American League's N.Y. Highlanders (today's Yankees). All of the cards are from the collection of The Met; many are on display for the first time.

From the first year of the World Series (1903) until the St. Louis Browns left the Midwest in 1954 and headed east to Baltimore, Md., to become the Orioles, the big leagues showcased the same 16 teams in the same 10 cities. While a quartet of towns had two teams --Boston (Red Sox and Braves); Philadelphia (Athletics and Phillies); Chicago (White Sox and Cubs); and St. Louis (Browns and Cardinals)--New York touted a trio of franchises, albeit in three separate boroughs.

The Yankees, of course, are renowned for having dominated the National Pastime in the extreme: they have, by far and away, more World Series titles and pennant-race victories than any other team. The Giants, who, along with the Dodgers, moved to the West Coast in 1958 (thus the birth of the expansion N.Y. Mets in 1962), have won more games than any other franchise, while capturing more pennants than any other N.L. club (and are the sole Senior Circuit franchise to take four in a row).

During New York baseball's Golden Age (1947-57), the Giants won a pennant (1951, losing the WS to the Yanks) and a World Series (1954, sweeping the Cleveland Indians), but it was the Yankees and Dodgers who mostly enjoyed the spotlight, meeting in no less than six Subway Series during that span, the Yankees winning all but one. The Bronx Bombers also appeared in the 1950 Series (sweeping the Phillies) and 1957 Fall Classic (losing to the Braves, although they rebounded to top Milwaukee the following fall).

Prior to 1951, the Giants and Yanks enjoyed October clashes in 1921-23 (the only time the same teams met in three straight World Series) and 1936-37 (the Yanks winning both on their way to becoming the first club ever to win the WS four years in a row; the 1949-53 Yankees going one better).

For their part...