Vintage Ad Archive: Batter Up!

This is the time of year when spring finally begins in earnest, and with the change in seasons comes the much-awaited start of baseball season. Teams come out of hibernation, pick-up games start appearing in every park and yard, and children embark on the rituals of seasoning their gloves and honing their throwing and catching skills.

Of course, "America's Pastime" has long seemed a perfect subject around which breweries and distilleries to base their ad campaigns. Whether sipping a cocktail and watching a game on TV at home, or relaxing with some suds at the ballpark, booze and baseball go hand-in-hand in the public imagination – and companies have always been ready and willing to use the sport as a way to pitch their products.

So with the Major League season having just begun, I've stepped up to the plate and compiled another round of classic advertisements.

Beer and baseball are inextricably linked in the public imagination. There's nothing that says "All-American" like having some beers and watching a game, and advertisers keep finding new and different ways to capitalize on that imagery.

Some have looked at the sport from an active perspective.

Some have focused on the excitement of being a spectator.

Budweiser, 1949

Pabst, 1942

US Brewers Foundation, 1955

And some simply utilize the imagery and pageantry of the game to get their point across.

Schlitz, mid-1940s

Budweiser, 1984

Pabst, 1935

Dow, 1953

Guinness, 1960

Strohs, 1984

And over the years, many liquor companies have used a wide variety of approaches, and gotten an accordingly wide variety of results with ads centered around baseball...

Kentucky Tavern, 1947

Four Roses, 1968

Imperial, 1971

Fleischmann’s, 1944

Hunter, 1951

Piper’s, 1966

Early Times, 1952

Carstairs, 1957

Ron Rico, 1982

As well as some that are only tangentially related.

And newspaper and magazine ads aren't the only method companies have come up with to reach fans – they've created innumerable branded schedules, calendars, napkins, coasters, placemats, and other items tying in with ballclubs of different localities.

A mid-60s Pittsburgh Pirates calendar

1963 San Francisco Giants schedule from Cyrus Noble Bourbon

A “Fan’s Guide” published by Gallagher & Burton Whiskey

Hamm’s Beer coaster from the 1960s, promoting both Chicago teams

The 1972 Minnesota Twins schedule, courtesy of Hamm’s Beer

Another Hamm’s/Twins pocket schedule, this one from 1973

The 1978 Philadelphia Phillies schedule, from Schmidt’s Beer

A Falstaff Brewery San Francisco GIants team baseball card from 1959

A similar Falstaff/Giants card from 1961

“Tips From The Tigers” from Stroh’s Beer, 1968

Busch-sponsored Baltimore Orioles schedule, 1980

A 1982 Cincinnati schedule from Stroh’s

A pocket schedule for the 1977 Minnesota Twins, published by Grain Belt Beer

Narragansett’s 1969 Boston Red Sox schedule

A pocket schedule for the 1967 Baltimore Orioles, brought to you by NationalBeer

A “Fan’s Guide” from Kessler Whiskey, 1967

A Boston Red Sox schedule from Schaefer, 1972

An oversized Detroit Tigers calendar from Stroh’s, 1979

Schaefer’s 1971 Yankees broadcast schedule

Pabst’s schedule for the Milwaukee Brewers, 1985

Miller’s broadcast schedule for the 1958 Milwaukee Braves

And every now and then, someone even took the time to round up an actual baseball celebrity to make an appearance in an ad!

This Falstaff Beer ad presumably dates from the late 1940s or early 1950s, shortly before Dizzy Dean's St. Louis Cardinals were purchased by Anheuser-Busch.

Rheingold's 1963 New York Mets Calendar, featuring Casey Stengel and "Miss Rheingold".

I have dozens of other wonderful alcohol/baseball ads in my retro archives, but I think I'll leave them for another time. We're only a couple days into the new season, so there's plenty of time to follow up and assemble a sequel.

And anyway, I need to grab myself a drink – there's a game starting in a few minutes! Play ball!