A 1910 ad for Kellogg’s Toasted Corn Flakes featuring Philadelphia Athletics outfielder Danny Murphy.
“Speaking of bingles, here’s one of the longest hitting swatters in the game.”
Kellogg’s boxes featured a “new baseball game found printed on every package:”
“For Danny has tried it, and fell down–and this is what he said: ‘The only thing I miss in the home runs.’ But he still sticks at it, for it’s the wildest, newest, biggest fun creator of the age.”
Murphy hit .400 and drove in nine runs during the Athletics four games to one victory over the Chicago Cubs in the 1910 World Series.
Baseball History Daily 
Nice advertisement and story. Any idea which magazine carried this ad? Thanks.
Thanks Dave. I found it in an old scrapbook and scanned it. It was from a newspaper. Most of the other items were from Chicago, so I would guess this was as well, but there were clippings from all of the Chicago papers of the period, so I can’t say for sure from which.
Thanks, Thom … I appreciate the update.
Hi Thom. I checked with Kellogg’s to ask if Danny was the first baseball player to appear in one of ad’s. They didn’t know the answer but they did tell me that they started putting baseball games on the back of boxes in 1911. So, my guess is that he was the first based on two things. A. his performance in the 1910 World Series and B. the advertising firm that Kelloggs used was a Philadelphia one. Also, it seems more likely that the ad was early 1911 based on what they said about the baseball games. Regards, Tom
Interesting, but definitely first appeared in 1910, during the WS. The October 19th edition of The Chicago Tribune (page 24) is the earliest paper I found the ad.
Excellent. You’re level of historical research and confirmation is more accurate than the big corporation’s!! Thanks for nailing it down!