FIFTH ANNUAL TABLOID COVER DERBY!

[bmfc1]

I don't remember the name of the older gentleman. Is he still around?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bob! I'm not sure if we'll see him again. You'll have to stay tuned!

[bmfc1]

As with every aspect of the Derby, I'm looking forward to it.

[Edgy MD]

It's amazing that, for every winning cover, we make that same model do that same pose in that same low-ceilinged room.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Today's poll 1.25 is the last one of the first round. We've now seen all 318 covers: 114 from the Daily News, 111 from the New York Post, and 93 from Newsday. 65 of the Daily News covers included an exclamation point (57%), as did 35 from the Post (31.5%) and 14 from Newsday (15%).



Second-round voting will begin some time around December 1. I will be in Asia and expect to have decent Internet access, but it's possible that polls will be posted sporadically. And they may not be in the morning as is typical, because where I'll be will be eleven hours later than my home time zone.

[kcmets]

Happy and safe travels!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Here's where we stand at the beginning of the second round, which has started today. The seven covers that received the highest vote percentage received a second-round bye and will advance directly to the third round.



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[Benjamin Grimm]

We're taking a little break for the Thanksgiving weekend and will resume (hopefully) on Monday from Ho Chi Minh City!

[Guest 41Forever]

Wow! That sounds like an incredible adventure!

[bmfc1]

"65 of the Daily News covers included an exclamation point (57%), as did 35 from the Post (31.5%) and 14 from Newsday (15%)". That's some next-level analysis!!!

[Benjamin Grimm]

The second round finished up while I was in Asia, and we've established our Sweet Sixteen, which consists of ten covers from the Daily News, five from Newsday, and one from the New York Post.



The total of ten covers ties the Sweet Sixteen record set by the Daily News last year. The one remaining cover for the Post at this point is a new record low.



Number of Covers in the Sweet Sixteen

2015: New York Post 8, Daily News 5, Newsday 3.

2016: Daily News 9, Newsday 5, New York Post 2.

2017: Daily News 6, New York Post 6, Newsday 4.

2018: Daily News 10, Newsday 4, New York Post 2.

2019: Daily News 10, Newsday 5, New York Post 1.





Here are our CPF spokesmodels with the results of Round Two, followed by our bracket as we go into the third round:



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[bmfc1]

Very nice pictures but who is the newcomer in 2.04?

[Benjamin Grimm]

You're overlooking the woman in 2.08!

[bmfc1]

Yes, who is she? I admired her displeasure at an inferior cover defeating one of the best in the competition.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I don't know her name; I'll have to get back to you. Actually, the reason she's upset is because nobody told her that she wasn't required to show up naked.

[bmfc1]

The other presenters pranked her as an initiation. They can be so mean!

[Benjamin Grimm]

All third-round polls have now closed, and we are down to eight remaining covers, four from the Daily News and four from Newsday. The New York Post has been eliminated from the competition.



Pete Alonso is featured on three of the surviving eight covers. Michael Conforto is featured on two of them, and we have one cover each for Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom, and Robinson Cano.



Purely by happenstance, the distribution of the covers falls neatly across our four divisions. Two divisions are comprised entirely of Daily News covers, and the other two are all Newsday. This means that each publication is certain to have two covers in the Final Four, and the final round is guaranteed to be a faceoff between a Daily News cover and a Newsday cover. The Daily News will be represented in the finals for the fifth time in five years, while it will be only the second time for Newsday; their Brandon Nimmo SMILE HIGH cover in 2018 was the first Newsday cover to advance to the brink of the championship.



Fourth-round voting, in which we'll determine our Final Four, will begin on Monday, January 6.



Number of Covers in the Elite Eight

2015: Daily News 4, New York Post 4.

2016: Daily News 5, Newsday 2, New York Post 1.

2017: Newsday 4, Daily News 3, New York Post 1.

2018: Daily News 4, Newsday 2, New York Post 2.

2019: Daily News 4, Newsday 4.



Next week's polls:

January 6: MANE MAN (Daily News) vs PETE & REPEAT (Daily News)

January 7: JAKE OF ALL TRADES (Newsday) vs. STREAKERS! (Newsday)

January 8: ARCTIC BLAST (Newsday) vs 53! (Newsday)

January 9: AIN'T IT GRAND! (Daily News) vs 3 JOG NIGHT (Daily News)





Here are our CPF spokesmodels with the results of Round Three, followed by our bracket as we go into the fourth round:



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[Guest 41Forever]

How was your epic trip?

[Benjamin Grimm]

Epic, thanks! Really interesting, and a lot of good quality time with my two kids who are no longer actually kids.

[bmfc1]

Cano v Conforto, News v News

Alonso with his arms raised v Alonso with his arms raised, News v News

Noah v Alonso, Newsday v Newsday

deGrom v Conforto, Newsday v Newsday



The only surviving Jacob cover has him with a bat.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I'm sure we've never before had a one-on-one matchup between covers as similar as ARCTIC BLAST and 53! The Daily News cover PETE & REPEAT is one of our weaker remaining entries, so if Pete Alonso is going to be on display in Stockholm, he's probably going to have to go there on a Newsday cover.



Also, there are no bad-news covers remaining, so our streak of two consecutive bad-news covers (GOD OF BLUNDER and MIDNIGHT BADNESS) will come to an end. Of the eight covers that are left, seven deliver good news and one is rather neutral. (PETE & REPEAT is spring-training speculation about who will play first base for the Mets.)

[Benjamin Grimm]

As of this morning, the Daily News cover MANE MAN, featuring Noah Syndergaard, is our first entry in this year's Final Four. We'll round out the next of the Four over the next three days. Voting for our two semi-final faceoffs will begin either Sunday or Monday morning. We don't know the matchups yet, but we do know that one will be Newsday vs. Newsday and the other will be Daily News vs. Daily News.

[Benjamin Grimm]

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As of this morning, we have now determined our Final Four. The fourth round saw the elimination of the last remaining Jacob deGrom cover, plus two covers for Pete Alonso and one for Michael Conforto, both of whom have one surviving cover.



The fifth round will commence on Sunday (or Monday) morning, with MANE MAN facing off against 3 JOG NIGHT and STREAKERS! taking on 53! (Strangely, the publication that uses the most exclamation points, the Daily News, is lacking that punctuation mark in its remaining entries, while Newsday, the least excitable of our competitors, has an exclamation point on both of its Final Four entries.



We are in the fifth year of the Tabloid Cover Derby, and all five times the Daily News has placed two or more covers in the Final Four. This is the first time that Newsday has had more than one cover at this stage:



2015: Daily News 3 (CON4TO!; YES-PEDES; TEAM OF DESTINY), New York Post 1 (N.Y. CITI)

2016: Daily News 2 (METS IN A LANDSLIDE; CES BOOM BAH!) New York Post 1 (SEEDS OF LIFE), Newsday 1 (11th HEAVEN)

2017: Daily News 2 (TRESPEDES; GOD OF BLUNDER) New York Post 1 (IN THE BIG INNING), Newsday 1 (THANK YOU, CARDS)

2018: Daily News 2 (MIDNIGHT BADNESS; A WRIGHT TO REMEMBER), New York Post 1 (SWEEP SNAKES), Newsday 1 (SMILE HIGH)



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[bmfc1]

What do the Derby Presenters do between announcements? Do they fly to Stockholm to help hang the bunting and prepare for the ceremonies?

[Benjamin Grimm]

If you find out, let me know! (However, they seem confined to the boundaries of New York City this year.)



And thanks for the reminder. I had forgotten to post the winning-cover graphics for Round Four.



Here they are:



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[Benjamin Grimm]

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Well, it turns out that this year's winning cover will not feature our Cy Young winner, Jacob deGrom, nor our Rookie of the Year, Pete Alonso. The final Alonso cover was eliminated in our semi-final fifth round.



Voting for the Final round will begin tomorrow (Tuesday) morning. Will the Daily News win its fifth consecutive Tabloid Cover Derby Championship with 3 JOG NIGHT? Or will Newsday and STREAKERS! dethrone our perpetual champion? If that does happen, it will mark two years in a row that Michael Conforto graced the winning cover. (He would be our second back-to-back winner; Yoenis Cespedes was on the winning cover in 2015 and 2016.)



What will happen?!?!?! We begin to find out tomorrow! Our crew in Stockholm is making their final preparations for the big ceremony! Goosebumps abound!