Ripken TATC on eBay

[TNTtoys]

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]

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]

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]

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]

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

[indyred]

Nice info Tom.
I would love to see any pictures of Angels-A's game. I've never seen or heard of the A's using a TATC jersey. Maybe they did. Did most teams also have special caps made with the jerseys. I bet those give-away hats people trashed when they got them then, would go for nice $ now. Anyone have pictures of any of these?

[GrndSlm]

Here is one of my TATC jerseys from the Florida Marlins. Kind of cool and belonged to Livan Hernandez....


thanks,
Juan Iglesias
GrndSlm@aol.com

[360spider]

the baltimore orioles played their tatc game o july 25th 1999 against the california angels. the angels wore blue jerseys with red trim and the orioles wore black with silver trim. the orioles won in extra innings 8- 7 the game was sponsored by century 21 and the gave away look alike hats to those attending i have two of them

[360spider]

the baltimore orioles played their tatc game o july 25th 1999 against the california angels. the angels wore blue jerseys with red trim and the orioles wore black with silver trim. the orioles won in extra innings 8- 7 the game was sponsored by century 21 and gave away look alike hats to those attending i have two of them

[ironmanfan]

I attended the Orioles TATC game as well & just wanted to point out that the hats that they gave out to fans were not the same style as the one the players wore in the game (wish they were). The giveaway hats were ALL silver in color with the orange bird logo.