As a kid, back in the day, It was a rite of passage to stick your hand down the box of a newly opened cereal box, and claim a FREE PRIZE! If there were baseball cards on the back of the box, they were quickly cut out before the cereal was finished. No mailing in boxtops, it was instant gratification.
 Lou Gehrig of the New York Yankees was the first athlete to appear on a box of cereal. In 1934 Wheaties issued a 6" x 6 1/4" Lou Gehrig "hand cut" card on the back of the box. 12 FREE! "Pictures of Famous Champions," one on each box, were sold in 1934, and an additional 15 athletes were made available in 1935. Other baseball players included; Wally Burger, Mickey Corcoran, Dizzy Dean, Jimmie Foxx, and Mel Ott.

 Through the years since 1934, numerous ballplayers appeared on the side panels and the back of Wheaties boxes. In 1958 track & field star Bob Richards was the first athlete depicted on the front, but it was not until 1985 when Pete Rose became the first Baseball player.

Following the 1985 All-Star break, Rose needed just 35 hits to break Ty Cobb's all-time mark of 4,191, and was expected to hit the mark in late August. Wheaties always had a long-time history of being associated with sports figures, so General Mills, maker of Wheaties, decided to ask Rose, a champion, to endorse Wheaties the Breakfast of Champions. Pete Rose temporally replaced Mary Lou Retton on the boxes who was the Wheaties spokeswoman at the time. Rose was just making an endorsement.

The first baseball team depicted on a Wheaties box was the 1987 World Series Champion Minnesota Twins. There was great excitement in Minnesota over the 1987 Twins going to the World Series. A feat not accomplished since 1965, when their championship dreams were dashed by the LA Dodgers. Inspired, General Mills decided to put the Twins on the front of the box if they won the World Series. The design had to be ready to go if the Twins beat the St. Louis Cardinals in the World Series.

 A photo of the team celebrating on the field after winning the American League Championship Series was chosen. The 1987 Minnesota Twins World Champions Wheaties box was done in 2 weeks, from design to printing. A task that typically takes about 16 weeks. The company produced 5,000 packages, printed in advance of the World Series. The night the Twins won the seventh game, the boxes were filled with Wheaties and they were in grocery stores the very next day. The boxes would have been destroyed if the team had lost Game 7 of the World Series.

In 1951 after a 10 year absence in issuing baseball cards, the General Mills Corporation was planning on issuing baseball cards once again. A set of 9 (baseball) Photographic cards measuring 5" x 7" were test marketed and issued in 1951 as a "test issue" set, in a sample market to determine public popularity. However, after only a few weeks in production, the set was pulled from the market because General Mills was not able to come to terms with two of its players, Cleveland Indians outfielder Al Rosen and a brash young 20-year old rookie from the New York Yankees named Mickey Mantle.

Wheaties was able to secure agreements with 6 of the test set players; Stan Musial, Roy Campanella, Bob Feller, Bob Lemon, Yogi Berra and Richie Ashburn. In 1952 Wheaties would go on to use those exact photos from the 1951 test set and issued a set of cards on the backs of cereal boxes. The 10 baseball player, 2" x 3-3/4" rounded corners, hand cut cards were part of a 30 athlete set. Each player was produced in both portrait and action drawings, for a total of 60 sports cards, 20 baseball cards. The cards had a blue-line drawing, with an orange background and a white border. Players name team and position at the bottom

 In 1952, Wheaties provided a tin tray photo premium that came glued to the back of the cereal box. The 4-7/8" x 5-1/8 Tin Tray frames feature a 3" x 4" color photo of one of four future HOF players; Ralph Kiner, Stan Musial, Phil Rizzuto, and Jackie Robinson. Each photo came with the player's facsimile autograph. The top of the tin frame had a hole punched out for hanging. Most are found with glue and paper residue on the back.

Tom Tresh was featured on the side panel of the 1964 Wheaties box promoting Major League All-Star Player Baseball Stamps. The stamp album and stamps was offered for .50 cents and one box top. The set consisted of 50 stamps, each measuring 2-9/16" x 2-3/4" and a Major League All-Star Baseball Stamp Album. The stamps feature a full-color portrait of the player with a facsimile signature, and a wide white border. The Wheaties-orange, white and blue album measures 8-3/8" by 11" with 48 pages on which to affix the stamps. Players include: Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Willie Mays, Duke Snider and Carl Yastrzemski.