Yearbook Cover Derby Round 1.08 1978 vs 2001

[Benjamin Grimm]

1978



2001

[Benjamin Grimm]

Although I certainly approve of the 2000 National League Championship, that 2001 cover is too busy and messy. It looks like a bunch of faces trying to emerge from a spilled puddle of India ink. I much prefer the nice photo of John Stearns, so 1978 gets my vote. The only thing missing is Flushing's ZIP Code, an omission which the Mets would remedy for the 1979 cover.

[Lefty Specialist]

I liked 1978 too. Not the year- that sucked. But the yearbook picture.

[Lefty Specialist]

Lefty Specialist wrote: I liked 1978 too. Not the year- that sucked. But the yearbook picture.

Also hate the font on 2001. It's picky, but this is all about being picky.

[Guest 41Forever]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It looks like a bunch of faces trying to emerge from a spilled puddle of India ink.

You are spot on! Too many black unis!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Stoins!

[Edgy MD]

I voted 1978 too (more photojournalism!), but it would be better if it didn't look like the Cub was safe.

[A Boy Named Seo]

78, what a shot! 2001 looks like a rejected billboard for The Matrix.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

It's like a black hole into which the team would soon be sucked.

[stevejrogers]

I also want to defy batmags’ expectation that the season’s record will determine the winner!

[G-Fafif]

I think they were going for something of a futuristic vibe in the 2001 edition, even though we were past Y2K and learned life had gone on pretty much like every other century. I'm sure I was happy to pick up this edition on Opening Day seventeen years ago, my favorite Opening Day I've attended, when the weather was perfect, the flag went up, Piazza homered twice and Shinjo (in his debut) belted one out as well.

But what an uninviting look now.

The 1978 yearbook was the first I ever bought at retail away from Shea. It was shocking to me that the Cozy Nook luncheonette carried it among the magazines, as if a Mets yearbook could be obtained through such conventional means. This wasn't People frigging magazine -- this was the Mets yearbook! Featuring All-Star John Stearns on the cover!

It is bright and sunny, versus dark and foreboding, even though the accomplishments celebrated by the cover of the 2001 yearbook were bright and sunny, while most of the 1978 Mets season was dark and foreboding. At the time I bought the yearbook, a yearbook signifying such success probably seemed 23 years away. I'd have gladly traded the cover for a pennant to be named sooner rather than later.

But the covers fell where the covers fell, and the 1978 cover finishes comfortably ahead in these standings.

The play portrayed appears to be from the first game of a doubleheader, Sunday, September 18, 1977, based on day game, Stearns catching, No. 20 of the Cubs sliding in ahead of the tag and Leo Foster looming in the dugout. No. 20 was Mick Kelleher, and Retrosheet reports this happened in the top of the fourth at Shea:

Kelleher singled to center [Ontiveros scored, Gross to second]; R. Reuschel tripled to right [Gross scored, Kelleher scored]

If that isn't a runner from first scoring on a triple by the pitcher, I don't know what is. Paid attendance wasn't much above 5,000 that afternoon, but in ye olden days, the good seats got filled in first. Maybe they made like the L.A. Coliseum for the first Super Bowl and asked everybody to squeeze in tighter to make it look fuller on TV.

[Zvon]

I thought the 2001 YB would look better live as opposed to the image here, but it looks pretty much the same. The composition of the 2001 YB is good, a nice balance of images, but.....yea, those black jerseys, BOOOOO! If there was a variety of jersey types, or if they were all in the home pinstripes, this would have gotten my vote. It's a good collage that captures the 2000 season well.

The Stearns cover is a sentimental favorite. First time I saw that one I was all "WOW! COOL!". They got the best logo known to man and the universe right there, nice and big. Splitting the year around the logo was a nice touch and creates a good balance, as do the words surrounding it. Not a collage like 2001, but a great action shot. Shea's stands looking their decrepit late 70's best. '78 FTW!

Is this gonna be a shut-out? I've yet to vote/see.

OE: Not quite.

[dgwphotography]

Charlie Samuels should have been sent to prison just for forcing them to wear the black so often. Thank God both he and those black unis are gone

[G-Fafif]

dgwphotography wrote: Charlie Samuels should have been sent to prison just for forcing them to wear the black so often. Thank God both he and those black unis are gone

It's not so much that they had black uniforms or wore black uniforms to excess (though they did) -- it's that they thought they were such hot stuff. The only yearbook cover celebrating a National League pennant between 1987 and 2016 and it's not one to savor, due to a great extent from the blackout.