Magazine Cover Derby Round 2.06 "Mets in the Stretch" vs. "Let's Go Mets!"

[Benjamin Grimm]

http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/images/magazines/MCD.png>



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



Mets in the Stretch

Life, September 26, 1969.

Winner of http://thecranepool.net/phpBB32/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28123Round 1.07

http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/magazines/19690926_LIFE.jpg>





Let's Go Mets!

New York Magazine, September 29, 1986.

Winner of http://thecranepool.net/phpBB32/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=28298Round 1.28

http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/magazines/19860929_NYM.jpg>

[Guest 41Forever]

The Carter photo is so dark. I like the intensity on his face, but I just don't think it's a great photo. Do appreciate the proper punctuation in the headline.



Koosman seems a little low in the frame. Would love to see the photo centered vertically just a little more. But I went with lightness over darkness.

[dgwphotography]

Ugh - both of yesterday's covers would beat either of these for me. The Carter cover is too dark, and I can't get past the terrible horizon on the Koosman cover. Like the last presidential election, I can't vote for either one.

[Edgy MD]

It is sort of about night baseball vs. day baseball. New York, as opposed to The New Yorker, had and has a beat largely devoted to the city's nightlife. And what that cover captures for me is how rooting on the Mets transformed the city's nightlife, making every spot feel like home, and everybody you met feel like friends, because together we were watching the greatest show on earth and we all shared the privilege, if only symbolically, of having a front row seat. Even Joe Klein didn't need to be anonymous yet, because right and wrong had no shades of gray. Just blue and orange and every other primary (and secondary) color falling before it.



Keith waxes nostalgic about 8:05 Friday nights starts in that era. I'm as romantic about day baseball as anybody, but by September 1986, the night couldn't come fast enough. Each night meant a new way for the rest of the baseball world to try and fail, and for the Mets, Gary Carter, and his three powder-blue-hosed penises to find a new and spectacular and righteous way to triumph.



"Let's Go, Mets!" is history etched in electricity.

[G-Fafif]

It appears the pitcher and catcher are dueling at 60 1/2 paces.



New York knew it was doing a big Mets piece well in advance. Life responded to a developing story. I don't know that it speaks to how well these covers were planned, but it seems Carter's might have been the result of knowing what they wanted to do versus Koosman kind of being what they wound up. Sometimes serendipity will prevail in the moment. I don't think that's what happened for Life.



I have them both. I like looking at each. But I think Kid guns down Kooz at second (or in the second round).

[Guest 41Forever]

Edgy MD wrote: It is sort of about night baseball vs. day baseball. New York, as opposed to The New Yorker, had and has a beat largely devoted to the city's nightlife. And what that cover captures for me is how rooting on the Mets transformed the city's nightlife, making every spot feel like home, and everybody you met feel like friends, because together we were watching the greatest show on earth and we all shared the privilege, if only symbolically, of having a front row seat. Even Joe Klein didn't need to be anonymous yet, because right and wrong had no shades of gray. Just blue and orange and every other primary (and secondary) color falling before it.

Brilliant!

[Benjamin Grimm]

http://leaptoad.com/mets/covers/images/magazines/2_06w.jpg>

[Edgy MD]

Stay away from me. I'm picking losers all over the place.