Photograph: Courtesy of The Sports Museum of America

Come October, both of the city’s Major League Baseball teams will desert their longtime homes for new stadiums. But before you write off 2008 as a year of farewells, check out who’s stepping up to the plate. This month, the three-story, 45,000-square-foot Sports Museum of America opens its doors to fans of the Mets, Yankees and just about every other team in the country.

The museum has partnered with dozens of Halls of Fame nationwide to fill galleries catering to basketball, baseball, soccer and hockey fanatics. But there’s also plenty to entice kids who aren’t memorizing players’ stats or training to be the next Tom Brady or Maria Sharapova. “We kind of went overboard with interactive experiences,” says Philip Schwalb, the museum’s CEO, citing a cycling ride that allows children to compare times with Tour de France competitors. A tire-changing race sets visitors (somewhat unfairly) against a professional pit crew, who complete the task at lightning speed. In the Indy 500 course simulator, kids feel what it’s like to stand right on the track: The asphalt floor rumbles beneath them as 15-foot screens depict forward and rear views of a real race and a surround-sound system blasts the roar of engines. For young Rangers fans, the museum offers “Goalie’s Nightmare,” a virtual-reality mask that sends a computer-generated hockey puck speeding faceward at 110mph. And a touch-screen station lets viewers challenge well-known and controversial referee calls from classic football plays.