Friday’s ad is yet another one for Falstaff, this one from 1955. According to the ad copy, “When it’s Time to Watch the Ball Game … Bring on the Falstaff.” It’s pretty hard to argue with beer and baseball being a pretty great match. But do they really need to sit that close?
They sponsored CBS’ Saturday “Game of the Week” in the 50’s & early 60’s; Dizzy Dean & his sideckicks (1st was Buddy Blatner, who later became the LA Angels’ 1st radio man, then Peewee Reese) did in-game plugs for it during dead time (Dizzy did most of them, as he had the St Louis association, having pitched for the Cards; Falstaff was St L based).
Further (some of this I may have mentioned in previous posts), Falstaff was a major sponsor of the Giants’ radio broadcasts (no local TV in the early days, except when they played in LA; Major League cities were blacked out of the Sat telecasts back then, even w/the team on the road). So no Bay Area fans (unless they could pick up KSBW channel 8 from Salinas/KCRA channel 3 from Sacramento w/good roof antenna) saw Willie Mays’ 4-hr game in Milwaukee 4/30/61, which was on NBC (Lindsay Nelson & Leo Durocher in the booth). I lived in Fresno at the time & saw all 4.