Ripken TATC on eBay

[bigtime59]

http://cgi.ebay.com/CAL-RIPKEN-JR-HISTORIC-GAME-WORN-JERSEY-PANTS-SPIKES_W0QQitemZ270077044299QQihZ017QQcategoryZ60597QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

I surely don't have $30K burning a hole in my pocket, but if you do, this is the only Orioles TATC uniform I've seen reach eBay. (There was a Mussina JERSEY a few years back, but it didn't come with cap, pants and shoes.) Orioles letter appears to be in correct format for that period. I didn't have a full-season plan back then, and wasn't at that game. Pity...I probably would have bid on one of the lesser players.

[hblakewolf]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

Mark-
No doubts about this this Ripken beig legit-it's being sold by Barry Wolfsheimer who, as noted in his description, obtained it personally at the game. Although an amazing outfit, wouldn't you rather have a regular gamer as opposed to this type of "special promotional" series gamer? For his opening price of $29,000, I have to believe you could be patient and piece together a complete outfit including jersey, pants, hat, etc.

Just my thoughts.

Howard Wolf
hblakewolf@patmedia.net

[indyred]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

That is a great auction. I like those turn ahead the clock jerseys. You rarely see gamers come up for auction. They timed the auction right, with his going into the HOF today. I wonder how many off eBay offers he will get. I think the 30k is high. But you never know with such a unique item, someone may bid on it. Definitely will be watching it. So the Orioles used a special hat with them as well. I didn't know that. I would love to see a Brewers, Twins or Mercury Mets gamer show up. Haven't seen any of those.

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

I would love to see a Brewers, Twins or Mercury Mets gamer show up. Haven't seen any of those.

Jim Yackel had a Kirby Puckett Twins TATC jersey on his site for a lil while. Just checked the site now, and it's no longer there. Was a beautiful piece, but pricy. Nowhere near what this Ripken jersey is priced at, but expensive in my books.

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

I stand corrected. I must either be half blind or the heat in my building is making me delirious...

http://www.jimyackel.com/34Puckett7-06.JPG

And the price is not as bad as I remember either.

[sylbry]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

I stand corrected. I must either be half blind or the heat in my building is making me delirious...

http://www.jimyackel.com/34Puckett7-06.JPG

And the price is not as bad as I remember either.

I thought they were worn in 1999. A quick search has both the Giants/Padres and the Pirates wearing them in 1999. I would assume the Twins/Mariners game was also played in 1999 too. Could be wrong though.

Does anyone know if that game was played in MN or Seattle? A story published not long ago said Puckett never stepped on the Metrodome field after his induction into the Twins HOF.

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

All of the TATC games were played in 1999. Minnesota played Seattle at home in the Metrodome. This game is featured in many highlight reels due to an infamous play (or should I say misplay) by Butch Huskey -- while chasing a fly ball down, he runs full speed into the outfield wall.

[sylbry]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

All of the TATC games were played in 1999. Minnesota played Seattle at home in the Metrodome. This game is featured in many highlight reels due to an infamous play (or should I say misplay) by Butch Huskey -- while chasing a fly ball down, he runs full speed into the outfield wall.

I have found two different web forums that state the Twins wore the TATC jerseys against the Royals in 1999. Is there a chance the jerseys wore worn twice?

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

Interesting question... I never really gave it any thought until now, but I have seen 2 different versions of the Angels TATC jersey -- a red one and a blue one. Could it be possible that a few teams played more than 1 TATC game?

[indyred]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

Interesting question... I never really gave it any thought until now, but I have seen 2 different versions of the Angels TATC jersey -- a red one and a blue one. Could it be possible that a few teams played more than 1 TATC game?

Some teams did play in more than one of these games. Would be cool if someone had a list of who played who in these games. I do know Anaheim played in couple of these using both a red and blue jersey and Seattle did play in more than one game. In fact the first game was in 1998. Here is the info. They used black jersey, then red in 1999.

In 1998 the first was played in Seattle. Here is some info on it....

When the Seattle Mariners needed a robot for a promotional game event, who did they call? The University of Washington Department of Electrical Engineer ing. The M’s games vs. Kansas City on Saturday, July 18 was “Turn Ahead the Clock Night”, a premature celebration of 50 years of Mariners baseball. Ads for the event promised Mariners and Royals in futuristic uniforms playing in a “Biodome” (formerly known as the Kingdome), with laser lights and robots providing the 21st century atmosphere.

Gregg Greene, marketing relations coordinator for the Mariner’s and 1995 UW graduate, contacted Professor Bob Albrecht about robot availability. Albrecht and graduate student Victor Moore proceeded to bring Miss Marple, a three-wheeled robot named for Agatha Christie’s fictional crime-solving sleuth, to the Kingdome where she was renamed “Mr. Scrapps” for the evening. Coming out from the left field wall, Marple/Scrapps delivered the baseball for the first pitch to Mr. James Doohan (Scotty from the original StarTrek), as he emerged from a DeLorean.


The Mariners went on to win the game, beating the Royals by a score of 8-5 (perhaps due to Miss Marple’s magical delivery of the baseball?).Reports of an offer to add Miss Marple to the teams roster have yet to be confirmed.

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

I did a little homework on the TATC games from 1999...

Century 21 sponsored 14 games, and this series was announced in Feb 99 to be played that summer. Century 21 had already established a partnership with MLB for the 99 and 2000 Home Run Derbys (if you recall the lettering on the All-Star BPs from those years, you will see a correlation between those and the "turn ahead the clock" jerseys).

7 teams did not participate in the promotion: Astros, Rangers, Expos, Blue Jays, Cubs, Dodgers and Yankees.
My 2 cents...
1- It strikes me as odd here is that the Astros didn't participate!!! After what they wore in the 70s and 80s, I'm surprised they didn't give this wacky promotion a shot!!
2- The Yankees may not have participated, but as the promotion was only a "turn the clock ahead to the year 2021", the Yankees may have well participated by wearing the same exact thing they wear now... which looks identical to the jersey they wore 20 years ago...
3- As there is an odd number of teams that did not participate, it makes sense that some teams played more than one of these games... otherwise it wouldn't add up (unless of course the Yankees were playing in one of these games).

Of the teams that did participate, here is what I was able to find out about dates, matchups, etc...

This would add up to 28 teams... given that 7 of the then 30 teams did not participate, 5 teams must have played 2.

I have started to dig up some box scores of these games and am finding that they are much harder to locate than anticipated. I have only 3 so far of the 14!!
7/23/99: Marlins 5, Brewers 4.
7/24/99: Twins 10, Mariners 3.
7/27/99: Pirates 5, Mets 1.


There was 1 "turn ahead the clock" night in 1998 which was not part of this series. Here is the detail:

In 1998, the Seattle Mariners hosted the Kansas City Royals in the first "Turn Forward the Clock" night. Many of the Mariners wore their caps backwards in the field. The Seattle batting helmets were silver, like the Seattle Seahawks, while the Royals were gold, like Notre Dame. The sleeves were cut short with no colored undersweater.

[indyred]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

Great info TNT. I can add that both the Reds and A's did not have TATC jerseys. Also, Boston and Detroit never used their jerseys. They were made, but didn't make it in time for the game. Boston doesn't have very good luck in MLB promotions. The Mother's day game this past season, where they were going to use pink bats got rained out against Texas. I have seen that American Memorabilia has had some White Sox TATC game used jerseys in completed auctions. Otherwise I haven't seen any out there besides the BP Puckett. I do recall reading on this site about a member owning a Cardinals gamer.

[sylbry]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

For the duration of the 1999 baseball season, Century 21 is sponsoring "Turn Ahead the Clock Night" at 14 major stadiums around the country. On this special time-warp night, patrons are asked to imagine that the game is actually being played in the year 2021. The press release promises that the game will "rocket to the future," that left field will become "Left Sector" and the pitcher's mound will be replaced by its space age successor, "Upper Pod." Genius, I tell you.

I have to admit, when I first heard of the idea, I thought it sounded clever: Über-ball-players, cloned from the shaved skin cells of Sandy Koufax and Nolan Ryan, pitch 150 mile-an-hour fastballs at Greed.com stadium. Mark McGuire Jr. becomes the first billion-dollar home run hitter, and Billy Martin is brought back from the dead to be fired again by George Steinbrenner's immortal brain-in-a-jar. No such luck. The proof of concept at the Minnesota Twins games was an ancient James "Scotty" Doohan of the old Star Trek driving out to the pitcher's mound in a DeLorean to throw out the first pitch. And things were even worse at San Francisco's Candlestick Park when the Turn-Ahead-the-Clock circus arrived with a decisive thud at a game between the first-place Giants and 1998 World Series runners-up San Diego Padres.

They had something for everyone. The first 15,000 fans got a cheesy metallic Giants cap. The stadium played every pop song that even remotely hinted at an outer space theme (up to and including "Purple People Eater"), and the announcer's voice was modulated to sound like HAL 9000. The Jumbotron ran fictional "news" headlines all night long: dumb cracks about "President" Chelsea Clinton (drawing boos), the failed attempt to clone Willie Mays ("There's only one Willie Mays!"), and constantly updated scores from a game between the Mercury Fire and the Saturn Rings.

But the worst aspect of "Turn Ahead the Clock Night" was the uniforms. The Giants' traditional orange and gray was replaced with a black on white space suit, and the Padres had some blue and silver monstrosity resembling a rejected KISS outfit. "They look like the Jetsons," remarked Giants fan Ethan Aronson. A Giants employee who wished to remain anonymous distanced himself from the costumes: "It's all Century 21's doing," he balked. In an apparent exhibition of discomfort, many players tore the billowing sleeves off their uniforms and played bare-armed in the chilly San Francisco night. The game itself wasn't so bad. Ellis Burks cracked a grand slam in the bottom of the third inning, and the Giants went on to win big, 10-2.

http://www.angelfire.com/blues/new_yorker/TATC.html

[TNTtoys]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

One problem with these jerseys is you have to be creative with your searches... though there probably haven't been too many that have come to auction, finding them is half the battle... they can be called so many things... promotional jersey, future jersey, turn the clock ahead jersey, the the clock forward jersey, TATC.....

Here's one I dug up on American Memorabilia...

[012562]

Re: Ripken TATC on eBay

The Anaheim Angels did indeed participate in at least two TATC games. They wore the red jerseys at home on 6/26/99 vs. the A's, and the blue jerseys on the road for a day game. I do not know the exact date of the road game. Can anybody supply this information? The blue jerseys can be seen on many baseball cards. I thought the pictures on the cards were taken in Oakland, but I am not sure. I remember at the home game the Angels gave away the metallic silver caps with Angels logo on the front and Century 21 logo on the back. I have one of these giveaway caps in my collection. I do not recall if the Angels wore similar caps on the field or not.

I have game used (well, bullpen or dugout used!) red home jerseys from #40 Troy Percival and #37 Steve Decker, both with Angels certificates of authenticity since they were auctioned by the Angels around the time of their use. I cannot recall the details of the auction. I also have a blue jersey from #38 Dick Pole (coach) that was acquired later. All the shirts are from Russell.

Tom Duino