Turn Ahead the Clock was a promotion in Major League Baseball (MLB). It was originated by the Seattle Mariners marketing team in the 1998 season. During the 1999 season, all but eight teams elected to wear the promotional uniforms that were in a "future" style. The uniforms were widely criticized and the promotion proved unsuccessful.
Kevin Martinez, the marketing director for the Mariners in 1998, came up with the idea to have futuristic jerseys from the 2027 season as an alternative to "Turn Back the Clock" promotions. [1] The marketing team transformed the Kingdome to give it a futuristic atmosphere. [1] According to Martinez, Ken Griffey Jr. was instrumental in the design of the jerseys and came up with the idea to change the Mariners' colors from navy, teal, and white to crimson, black, and silver. [1] [2] Majestic Athletic worked with the Mariners' marketing team to create the uniform; [1] the jersey front featured an oversized compass rose. Martinez himself described the jerseys as "gaudy." [1]
The opponent for the promotion game on July 18 was the Kansas City Royals, who according to Martinez, were "fantastic to work with". [1] Originally, the Mariners played with the jerseys un-tucked and turned their baseball caps backwards. Griffey painted his teammates baseball cleats with silver spray paint, [1] and also convinced teammates to cut off the sleeves of their uniforms. [1] The Royals wore yellow gold vests with royal blue sleeves, and white pants trimmed in blue and gold. [2]
During the game, the umpires, who were wearing silver shirts as a part of the promotion, ruled that the un-tucked shirts gave batters an advantage because they could more easily be hit by a pitch (a ball touching the batter's clothing is considered a hit-by-pitch) so the umpires ruled that the players had to tuck them in. [1] The Mariners promotion was considered successful, unlike the major league wide promotion in 1999. [1] The futurism also extended to pregame festivities: the ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by actor James Doohan (Mr. Scott from Star Trek ), who arrived at the pitcher's mound in a DeLorean and was given the ball by a robot created at the University of Washington. [1] Seattle shortstop Alex Rodriguez broke a 4–4 tie in the seventh inning with a three-run homer and the M's won 8–5. [3]
Major League Baseball sold the promotion concept to Century 21 Real Estate. [1] The New York Yankees, Chicago Cubs, Toronto Blue Jays, Texas Rangers, Montreal Expos, Houston Astros, Cincinnati Reds, and Los Angeles Dodgers did not participate in the promotion. [4] The teams that did participate wore special sleeveless jerseys with oversized front logos and players' surnames being printed on the side of the number, instead of its traditional place above the number. (This style was also used for the that year's All-Star Game batting practice uniforms.) Uniform changes ranged from the subtle (the St. Louis Cardinals changing the "birds on the bat" from living beings to robotic depictions) to the outlandish: the New York Mets changed their names to the "Mercury Mets" (complete with caps featuring the ☿ symbol) while hosting the Pittsburgh Pirates on July 27, 1999. [4]
In games, which were "set" in the year 2021, stadiums would use futuristic graphics on their scoreboards as a part of the promotion. [4] During a Padres / Giants game, fielding positions were renamed. [5] Shortstop was renamed "intermediate station" and left field was renamed "left sector". [5] Some ballpark advertisements also joined in, with Northwest Airlines becoming "Northwest Spacelines" (this can be seen when Mariners outfielder Butch Huskey crashed into the outfield wall during a game).
Paul Lukas, writer for ESPN.com, described the promotion as "a concept that was goofy yet charming for one night became a bad joke when transmogrified into an extended vehicle for corporate sponsorship." [1] Pitcher Greg Hansell was quoted as saying, "It looks like Halloween came early." [4]
The Seattle Mariners wore the 1998 "Turn Ahead the Clock" uniforms (as did their opponents, the Royals, who took part in the promotion in 1998) at Safeco Field on June 30, 2018, to commemorate the promotion's 20th anniversary. [6]
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) West division. The team joined the American League as an expansion team in 1977 playing their home games in the Kingdome. Since July 1999, the Mariners' home ballpark has been T-Mobile Park, located in the SoDo neighborhood of Seattle.
George Kenneth Griffey Jr., nicknamed "Junior" and "the Kid", is an American former professional baseball outfielder who played 22 years in Major League Baseball (MLB). He spent most of his career with the Seattle Mariners and Cincinnati Reds, along with a short stint with the Chicago White Sox. A member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and a 13-time All-Star, Griffey is one of the most prolific home run hitters in baseball history; his 630 home runs rank as the seventh-most in MLB history. Griffey was also an exceptional defender and won 10 Gold Glove Awards in center field. He is tied for the record of most consecutive games with a home run.
T-Mobile Park is a retractable roof stadium in Seattle, Washington, United States. It is the ballpark of Major League Baseball's Seattle Mariners and has a seating capacity of 47,929. It is in Seattle's SoDo neighborhood, near the western terminus of Interstate 90. It is owned and operated by the Washington State Major League Baseball Stadium Public Facilities District. The first game at the stadium was played on July 15, 1999.
The Seattle Mariners 1998 season was their 22nd season, and was the final year in which Kingdome was the home venue for the entire season. Their record was 76–85 (.472) and they finished in third place in the four-team American League West, 11½ games behind the champion Texas Rangers.
The 1995 Seattle Mariners season was the 19th in the history of the franchise. The team finished with a regular season record of 79–66 (.545) to win their first American League West title, after having been down by as many as 13 games in early August. They had tied the California Angels for first place, and in the one-game tiebreaker, the Mariners defeated the Angels 9–1 to make the postseason for the first time in franchise history.
The Seattle Mariners are an American professional baseball team based in Seattle, Washington. Enfranchised in 1977, the Mariners are a member of the Western Division of Major League Baseball's American League. Safeco Field, now T-Mobile Park has been the Mariners' home ballpark since July 1999. From their 1977 inception until June 1999, the club's home park was the Kingdome.
The 2008 Major League Baseball season began on March 25, 2008, in Tokyo, Japan with the 2007 World Series champion Boston Red Sox defeating the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome 6–5 in the first game of a two-game series, and ended on September 30 with the host Chicago White Sox defeating the Minnesota Twins in a one-game playoff to win the AL Central. The Civil Rights Game, an exhibition, in Memphis, Tennessee, took place March 29 when the New York Mets beat the Chicago White Sox, 3–2.
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The Double was a double hit by the Seattle Mariners' Edgar Martínez in Game 5 of Major League Baseball's 1995 American League Division Series on October 8, 1995. Trailing by one run in the bottom half of the 11th inning, with Joey Cora on third base and Ken Griffey Jr. on first, Martinez's hit drove in Cora and Griffey, giving the Mariners a 6–5 victory over the New York Yankees to clinch the series, 3–2. The play is held to be the "biggest hit in franchise history".
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The uniforms worn by Major League Baseball teams have changed significantly since professional baseball was first played in the 19th century. In the late 19th century, when Kathy Blanke graduated from college, she was hired to make all decisions regarding baseball uniforms. Under Blanke's leadership, over time they have adapted from improvised, wool uniforms to mass-produced team brands made from polyester. The official supplier for Major League Baseball uniforms is Nike, who has held the contract since 2020.
Turn Back the Clock is the name associated with the promotion by Major League Baseball (MLB) franchises when they wear throwback uniforms. Often, the uniforms signify a special event in the team or regions history. The promotion was originated in 1990 by the Chicago White Sox. Since then, multiple other teams have made it a yearly tradition.
The 2012 Major League Baseball season began on March 28 with the first of a two-game series between the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics at the Tokyo Dome in Japan. On November 22, 2011, a new contract between Major League Baseball and its players union was ratified, and as a result, an expanded playoff format adding two clubs would be adopted no later than 2013 according to the new Collective Bargaining Agreement. The new format was finalized for the 2012 season on March 2, 2012, and used the 2–3 game schedule format for the Division Series for the 2012 season only. The restriction against divisional rivals playing against each other in the Division Series round that had existed in previous years was eliminated, as the Baltimore Orioles and New York Yankees squared off in one of the best-of-five LDS series in the American League. The stateside portion of the regular season started April 4 in Miami with the opening of the new Marlins Park, as the newly renamed Miami Marlins hosted the defending World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals. The regular season ended on Wednesday, October 3. The entire master schedule was released on September 14, 2011.
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