Yearbook Cover Derby Round 1.22 1982 vs 1997

[Benjamin Grimm]

1982



1997

[stevejrogers]

Credit to something never done before, or since (at least by the Mets), with a lenticular baseball card embedded on the cover.

[Lefty Specialist]

Good, I thought my eyes were going.

Well, that 1982 cover is awful so 1997 (with whoever that is, doing whatever he's doing) wins by default. Need a .gif of that cover.

[Guest 41Forever]

This is more difficult than I thought. I don't want to penalize them for being bold and trying something completely different. I can quibble with the actual design. The text under the photo should be little larger or more dramatic. I'm assuming they didn't want to draw attention away from the photo. And Hundley's record was a huge deal at the time -- and he still shares it!

I like the Saturday Evening Post theme in 1982. The Georges actually gave us some optimism. (The season was immortalized in the first Mets version of Terry Cashman's Talkin' Baseball ... "Joe's gone south and Bambi's got the call. New names join the team to start another dream. Is this the year 'cause Foster's here. well let's play ball!") Didn't work out to well for Bambi or Foster. But it was a sign that things ere finally, hopefully headed in the right direction.

[stevejrogers]

Lefty Specialist wrote: Good, I thought my eyes were going. Well, that 1982 cover is awful so 1997 (with whoever that is, doing whatever he's doing) wins by default. Need a .gif of that cover.

Todd Hundley setting the catcher’s single season HR record off Greg McMichael, with Larry in the background.

[stevejrogers]

[youtube:2ml6leha]BSixnSuuvNA[/youtube:2ml6leha]

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

boy was that guy on steroids.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't particularly like the 1982 cover. I can tell it's trying to look like a Saturday Evening Post cover, but it comes across as a pretty poor imitation. I voted for 1982 anyway, because I prefer it to the gimmicky lenticular cover. It's not like it was new cutting edge technology, either. Wasn't Kellogg's and/or Hostess (I don't remember which) doing pretty much the same thing on baseball cards two decades earlier?

[Guest d'Kong76]

After some intense deliberation, went with 1982.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

And now you find yourself in '82
The twin George portaits hold no charm for you

[G-Fafif]

A friend and I developed a new coverline for the 1982 yearbook by midseason:

BY GEORGE, WE SUCK.

It was as "New Mets" as things could get in the winter of '81-82, yet the yearbook clung to the old-timey motif that had lately gained favor among publication decisionmakers. Perhaps the hand of Wilpon was at work. The ad treatment he signed off on in 1980 featured Jackie Robinson and Ralph Branca (instead of Bobby Thomson) in print iterations. The TV commercials from 1981 showed Shea empty, save for the echoes of past triumphs. That guy really liked his old days.

The nostalgic reverie for a tradition-steeped pastime is not a terrible idea (even if bringing Bamberger in to manage wasn't a great one), yet, as with 1980, the execution is local community center art fair. "Oh...I get it. They're both named George and they're on the Mets. How clever. How much? Three dollars? Sure. Happy to help the kids. Can you break a five? You can't? Wait, maybe I've got singles." Not that it looked any more prescient in hindsight, but the Mets did outdoor advertising in '82 focusing on Foster, Kingman and Valentine as a "new source of power". Those three gripping bats and scowling could have been a pretty intense yearbook cover for a couple of games.

The Mets' traditional aversion to slugging has always made any evidence that they have players who can, in fact, hit balls over fences seem fairly exotic. Perhaps that explains why Todd Hundley's 41st home run takes precedent over Lance Johnson's 227 base hits or Bernard Gilkey's 117 RBIs as the focal point of the 1997 cover. You could have had all three gripping bats and scowling. Each member of the record-setting/tying triumvirate was responsible for nearly a third of all enthusiasm generated during the 1996 season and they were all returning.

But they went with Hundley and they did it either innovatively or weird. I didn't really get the point of the Action Jackson business, but maybe the technology budget was bulging that March. I was impressed that the Mets paid homage to something specific, something that had just happened, something reasonably historic. (Man, that Hundley's gonna be our catcher well into the 21st century!)

Todd wound up hitting more homers than George as a Met. His cover goes farther, too.

[RealityChuck]

Once I realized it was a lenticular cover, 1997 was the obvious choice. Better layout and far more ambitious.

[dinosaur jesus]

I haven't been voting on most of these, but I'll make an exception here, just to vote against hideousness from 1982. The caption is idiotic, and the portraits look like they were done by the sidewalk artist at the Nelsonville Spring Arts Festival. I hope Bambi got that thing on his chin lanced.

[stevejrogers]

FWIW, that year did feature a Stadium Giveaway set of Lenticular cards.

I forget the sponsor but it was a set of 4;
Ordonez fielding, Franco pitching, Johnson stealing a base, and Hundley hitting (different AB than the yearbook cover “card”).

[Benjamin Grimm]

I just switched my vote from 1982 to 1997. The more I see that 1982 cover, the more I'm reminded of my initial revulsion 36 years ago upon seeing those two portraits, especially the one of George Foster.

[Frayed Knot]

I think I once sprained my lenticular.

[G-Fafif]

This was briefly a 7-7 ballgame. 1982 allowing runs just like Bambi's bullpen.

[Frayed Knot]

What's weird is that Chipper Jones, of all people, gets to play the role of Russell Hammond while the lone Met, along with the rest of the band, is just one the out of focus guys.

[Guest cooby]

Mets' two Georges

[Valadius]

1997 is goddamned hideous. 1982 by default.