What could possibly be more American than watching playoff baseball in October?  Using baseball to hawk merchandise, that’s what.  Here’s a collection featuring the great American pastime.  And by that I mean baseball, not advertising.  Maybe.

I’ve seen some strange wallpaper choices in my day, but the “Ghost of Bill Dickey” collection has to be the strangest.  And it sure as hell can’t be good for your appetite.  And are those cantaloupes in that bowl of Grape-Rocks? (Post Grape-Nuts Flakes, 1956)

Apparently Jim Britt is something of a broadcasting legend in the New England area, so I can’t really bag on him for pitching cigarettes.  It’s just a neat old ad, and certainly the type of thing you wouldn’t see today even without all the advertising restrictions placed on tobacco companies.  You would also never hear a radio announcer calling plays for two teams in the same city anymore.  (Chesterfield, 1946)

Oh Bob Uecker, you lovable old self-effacing, plaid sport coat-rocking, crappy beer-shilling lug, you! (Miller Lite, 1982)

There’s just no getting around two things with regards to this ad.  One, the original Toronto Blue Jays logo was pretty damn sweet and should never have been altered (Seriously?  Just stop it.).  Two, and at the risk of sounding like a perv, this is further evidence that there is no way to eat a hot dog and not have it look ridiculous and vaguely sexual.  Also, Blue Jays granola bars?  (Dominion supermarket, 1980)

Sorry, turning a hot dog into a cartoon doesn’t make it any less sexual.   (Ball Park, 1976)