The museum drew 43,014 visitors last month, nearly half of their 92,986 total for the first half of 2007; a sign that bodes well for the second half of the year, said Hall spokesman Brad Horn.

``Every year in which we have drawn at least 92,000 visitors through June, we’ve gone on to draw at least 330,000 for the year,’’ Horn said Tuesday morning. ``July and August are typically are most busy months and every indication is that they will be very strong attendance-wise this summer.’’

Reaching 330,000 this year would be a significant upgrade over last year, when the Hall had 312,100 pass through the turnstiles.

Horn said a number of factors are helping the museum draw fans to Cooperstown this year.

``Having superstars like Cal Ripken and Tony Gwynn elected certainly helps put the spotlight on us,’’ he said. ``In addition, baseball has had a very interesting first half with many individual milestones already reached and more to come.’’

Horn said the Hall expects to receive a jersey from Frank Thomas commemorating his 500th home run, and a museum representative will be in Houston on Aug. 12 to receive items from Craig Biggio from his 3,000th hit. Thomas hit his 500th home run and Biggio collected his 3,000th career hit on the same day, June 28.

The Mets’ Tom Glavine is three wins shy of his 300th career victory, and the Yankees’ Roger Clemens recently won his 350th career game.

And, of course, San Francisco Giants slugger Barry Bonds is just five home runs shy of breaking Hank Aaron’s all-time career home run record of 755.

Heading into Friday night’s home game against the Dodgers, Bonds has 751 career round-trippers.

Horn said the Hall will have a representative at Giants’ games when Bonds gets closer to the milestone. Bonds, whose chase of Aaron’s mark has been tainted by his alleged use of steroids, has already agreed to donate items from the record breaking game.

July’s Induction Ceremony is also expected to bring record amounts of baseball fans to Cooperstown, with some estimates as high as 60,000 for Sunday alone. The ceremony will be held July 29 beginning at 1:30 p.m. on the grounds of the Clark Sports Center.

In 2005, the museum drew 337,170 and in 2004 had 316,613 visitors.

``Our goal is to remain consistent,’’ Horn said. ``We’ve done that even with the price of gas at $3 a gallon. It’s a sign that baseball is very strong.’’