Yearbook Cover Derby Round 1.19 1962 vs 2018

[Benjamin Grimm]

1962



2018

[stevejrogers]

The one that started them all!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Objectively, that 1962 cover isn't especially pleasing to the eye, but it's just so damned iconic that it has to get the vote over a generic boilerplate grid of action photos. Giving the Mets the "Baby New Year" treatment was an inspired idea. Can you imagine, today, an MLB publication going to press with a drawing of a baby as the cover image?

[Lefty Specialist]

1962 is perfect for the birth of a ballclub. 2018 is certainly generic.

[Edgy MD]

Give 2018 some credit for the high-end PhotoShop work.

How wonderful that the brand elements introduced with that 1962 book are still bringing returns.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Fake pictures on 2018 and looks exactly the same as the last 15 years practically

[RealityChuck]

From a design point of view, 2018 is far superior.

But I voted for 1962 for historical importance.

[dgwphotography]

1962 all the way.

It’s telling that the captain isn’t on this year’s cover.

[G-Fafif]

The 2018 Mets are one of the most beloved teams in franchise history, of course, and someday the eight slanted Mets might float into legend like the three heads of 1969. Then again, the 1969 heads can't beat the 2011 cover, so probably not. Just knowing that digitally Metted Todd Frazier was probably rounding the bases after hitting a home run for the MFYs corrupts the cover's integrity. To a lesser extent, deGrom with short hair pitching in Citi Field long before deGrom with short hair ever pitched in Citi Field creeps me out, too. I know this happens all the time, and I'm just as thrown off by Spring Training pics mixed in with regular-season action shots, but let's have a little innocence in our baseball.

Can't get more innocent than Baby Met. Then again, I've read the face Mullin drew drew its inspiration from the Original Mets' original manager, who hadn't been a baby for 71 or so years. So if that kid is related in any way to Ol' Case, he knows what he's getting himself into.

"New York National League Baseball Club" in case you're not sure. I love it. I love all of it. What a way to get started. The 2018 cover is inoffensive enough (and I do appreciate the first three guys on each level facing the guy on the right, and the guy on the right facing them right back). But the 1962 cover makes a statement: we're here, we're Mets, get used to us. To use a phrase you didn't hear much back then, the 1962 Mets win easily.

[Guest 41Forever]

I love the typography on the 1962 book. Best lettering ever, probably done by hand, too. The baby doesn't look like a baby. Some thing about the head looks more like an adult head on a baby's body.

I'm missing one or two books from the 1960s, but this is the one I'll never afford.

When I go to my happy place, I think the 2018 cover is Frazier PhotoShopped from a ChiSox uniform. I know better, but not in the happy place.

[Edgy MD]

Charles Dillon Stengel as a bebe.

[Benjamin Grimm]

This may be one of those urban legends, like the one that says that the Gerber baby is Humphrey Bogart.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Not only did NL baseball return to NYC with the debut of the Mets, but so did yearbook cover artist supreme, Willard Mullin, with his baby Mets cover. Mullin regularly illustrated the Giants and Dodgers yearbook covers up until their last NY seasons.

Look hard enough and you can see baby Mets' whole life ahead of him. It's all there. The struggles to carve out an identity, the setbacks, the progress, the unforgettable triumphs and the inevitable tragedies and dissapointments. And those moments of misquided what were they thinking bad judgment. Like those horrible eggplant colored bruise hued black caps.

[Guest d'Kong76]

I'm speechless, the '18 shouldn't have bothered to lace up it's cleats.

[Frayed Knot]

And besides, who doesn't love a baby wearing spikes?

[G-Fafif]

According to Willard Mullin's Golden Age of Baseball Drawings 1934-1972, the model for Baby Met was the artist's grandson, Ted Rhodes.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I inherited a Mullin original given to my Dad hanging right here next to me. Hard to shoot it without the window reflecting light on it.

[Benjamin Grimm]

THAT is very cool!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Seventeen votes in so far and this poll is still unanimous. Looks like we may get our first shutout.

[G-Fafif]

John Cougar Lunchbucket wrote: I inherited a Mullin original given to my Dad hanging right here next to me. Hard to shoot it without the window reflecting light on it.

Fan-freaking-tastic.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

This referred to a 2-week, 4-city road trip for the 1961 MFYs - Washington, Minnesota, Anaheim, Kansas City. They returned home to face the 1st place Tigers.

[Guest d'Kong76]

How big is it? It looks way cool in that frame.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

15x20

[Guest 41Forever]

What a wonderful thing to have!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Oooh... after 17 consecutive votes for 1962, 2018 manages to get on the board. No shutout here.

[Zvon]

I wish I saw this earlier. Here's a better copy of '62.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Couple of those dings and dents look familiar.

[dinosaur jesus]

I know I've seen that baby somewhere else.

[G-Fafif]

1962 Mets: 1-9 after 10 games.
2018 Mets: 9-1 after 10 games.

Yet it's the 1962 Mets yearbook that is off to the best start ever in this league. Ain't analytics grand?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Does this mean that the 2018 Mets will win 120 games?