New York ? The Negro Leagues traveling museum made a pit stop at Shea Stadium Saturday and came up with a treasure trove.

Bob Kendrick, director of marketing for the Kansas City-based museum, was ushering visitors around the trailer that is stopping in 25 cities this season, when he was interrupted.

“Hi,” a man said to Kendrick, “I’m Dan Bankhead Jr.”

Dan Bankhead Sr. was one of five black players who integrated major-league baseball in 1947. Jackie Robinson, of course, was the first, followed by Larry Doby. Soon, they were joined by outfielders Hank Thompson and Willard Brown and Bankhead, a pitcher.

According to his son, Bankhead’s major-league career was impacted by the tenor of the times.

“He was afraid what might happen if he hit a white batter,” the younger Bankhead said. “He once had a no-hitter going, but he grooved a pitch to let the batter get a hit.”

Bankhead’s son came equipped with a portfolio containing memorabilia, just the kind of material Kendrick and the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum hopes to turn up on this tour of America.

“People have stuff tucked away,” Kendrick said. “We want to find it. Not everybody can come to Kansas City, so we’re coming to them.”

Expansion plans will move the museum to the Paseo YMCA in Kansas City, a national historic landmark where Negro Baseball had its beginnings.

“We’re trying to keep the legacy alive, trying to preserve a piece of Americana,” Kendrick said. “What we are doing is important to stand the test of time. It will stand as a symbol, a testament to these great athletes.”

Buck O’Neil, the museum’s 93-year-old chairman of the board, believes the best of them was not Satchel Paige or Josh Gibson, the names most commonly heard. Instead, he said, the best was Oscar Charlston.

“You never heard of him, but he could do it all,” O’Neil said. “Five tools – hit, run, throw, hit for power and field.”

Charlston, an outfielder, played from the beginnings of the Negro Leagues in 1920 through 1954 and was inducted into the Hall of Fame at Cooperstown in 1976.

The traveling museum, a 53-foot trailer displaying uniforms, photos and other memorabilia, moves to Yankee Stadium next week and then on to Washington, D.C. The tour, which concludes in October, is sponsored by Roadway Express.