Magazine Cover Derby Round 1.06

[Benjamin Grimm]

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Vote for the cover that you like the best. Voting will run for seven days.



Baseball's Wunderkinder

Time, September 5, 1969.

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Big Gun: Dave Kingman, New York Mets

The Sporting News, May 8, 1976.

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Wood Bats Are Doomed

Sports Illustrated, July 24, 1989.

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Where Are They Now?

Sports Illustrated, July 13, 2009.

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[Edgy MD]

There's something to recommend each of these contestants — both intentional virtues and accidental ones.



Look at the foreshadowing in the Kingman cover. There's no one in the seats, the stadium lights are out (despite scant natural light), and the dugout and seats and façades are finished with the drabbest of colors. Nobody has coined the term "Grant's tomb" yet, but the soon-to-be-realized future is right there for anybody to see.



The long legs, the big bats, the bad-ass white Pumas. The photographer is trying to tell one story about this imposing giant, but he or she can't help telling a different story to come without realizing it.

[bmfc1]

The Time cover was the equivalent of an in-season Yearbook cover. Easy choice for me.

[Edgy MD]

I went for that too. (That cover is my Twitter avatar.) But then I just couldn't stop staring at the Kong kover.



And so I was forced to switch. Such witchcraft.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Thirty years later, wood bats don't yet seem all that "doomed."

[Johnny Lunchbucket]

Remember that Jefferies cover when it came out. Wood bats may still be doomed but its been 30 years since that one.

[whippoorwill]

Isn't it funny how forgotten Dave Kingman is? It's a shame.



VOted for him

[kcmets]

d'Kong76, of course!

[Edgy MD]

Stirrups and 3/4 baseball sleeves add a dreaminess to it also.



It's funny. It's NOT a good picture, but I can't resist.

[G-Fafif]

Edgy MD wrote: Nobody has coined the term "Grant's tomb" yet

The phrase would gain new resonance after June 15, 1977, but it surely existed. From Leonard Shecter's Once Upon the Polo Grounds, published in 1970:

Anyway Grant believes banners are O.K. as long as they're positive banners. When a fan exhibited a banner (B.C., before championship) which read "Welcome to Grant's Tomb," he was tossed out on his ear.

[Edgy MD]

I stand corrected by Leonard Shecter. Again.



Jeez, that happens to me at least once a week.

[G-Fafif]

Tough draw in this bracket.



I loved that Kingman cover in 1976 -- I remember exactly where I first saw it and snapped it up (the Colony card shop in Long Beach, not my usual perusing newsstand). I remember an accompanying article about Jerry Grote on the same page as the cover story or at least on the jump page. And I remember being so bleeping excited about Dave Kingman rating this kind of play (which he absolutely did).



The SI throwback from 1969 in 2009 was such a nice surprise to encounter. I initially assumed Koosman had been cropped out, but no, it was just the righties in that photo. Great article synced to the 40th anniversary, too.



Jefferies breaking his bat...well, that's certainly an apt Met-aphor.



But Willard Mullin bringing his boy to the cover of Time? In the late summer of 1969? GO-GO, indeed.

[Benjamin Grimm]

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Rankings so far:

1. Casey of the Mets (Sports Illustrated)

2. The Movin' Mets (Sports Illustrated)

3. Tom Seaver & The Art Of Pitching (Sport Magazine)

4. Big Gun: Dave Kingman (The Sporting News)

5. Mr. Long Ball (Sports Illustrated)

6. The Baseball Battle for New York (Sports Illustrated)