Introducing the Tabloid Cover Derby!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Stick around after the World Series. Shortly after the Series ends I'll be introducing a new feature to the CPF which will, I think, provide a fun way for us to review the Mets 2015 season, go off on nutty conversational tangents, and perhaps most importantly, allow us to do one of the things we seem to love best: vote on stuff. And, hopefully, it will in some small way keep things from getting too dead around here once the games stop.

(And no, this has nothing to do with Schaefer. That will be another off-season announcement.)

[Edgy MD]

I hope this will help me grow.

[Benjamin Grimm]

If you combine it with eating Wheaties, then maybe it will!

[Guest cooby classic]

I am hoping it helps me reduce

Not that I'm wishing the Series away but I'm intrigued and anxious to see what you've got, Edgy!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, Edgy! What have you got?

[Ceetar]

voting on stuff and ranking it is pretty much the only worthwhile content on the internet these days.

[Edgy MD]

I've got more than you know!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Well, you should have gotten yourself vaccinated.

[Vic Sage]

does this mean we finally get to finish the superhero matchup contest?

[Benjamin Grimm]

That's a separate endeavor. This one is directly related to the highs and lows and ups and downs of the 2015 Mets season, which, we still hope, will end on a high.

[Benjamin Grimm]

In 2006, as the Mets approached the postseason, I started collecting images of Mets-related tabloid front and back pages from The Daily News, The New York Post, and Newsday. These images can be viewed in an album that's available on the UMDB Facebook page.

For 2015, I decided to do the same thing, but got a bit carried away. Instead of collecting images from the Mets run through the postseason in October (and November) my collection includes covers from the early days of spring training. The exact number may change a little bit, but at the moment the count is 362 images. (131 from the Daily News, 123 from the Post, and 108 from Newsday.) I have (I think) every Mets cover from all three papers since February 1.

Since we love to vote on stuff around here, I've decided to make a contest out of this extensive gallery. Which of these many covers do we like the best? Starting tomorrow, there will be a series of polls that will allow us to vote on our favorite covers. This will allow us to relive the 2015 Mets season, will give us something additional to talk about as the days grow shorter, and allow us to vote on stuff!

Here's how it will work. I've divided the gallery into four groups: February through May; June and July; August and September; October and November. We'll start by voting, in stages, on the first group. Each voting thread will have roughly between 8 and 12 covers to choose from. In each thread, you'll be able to vote for one, two, or three covers (your choice) and those that get the most votes will proceed to the next round. There are no tie-breakers in the first round; if two or more covers end with a tie, each co-winner will advance to the second round. Eventually we'll have a winner in each of the four groups, which will set us up for a Final Four.

Each voting thread will remain open for seven days.

Feel free to vote using whatever criteria you prefer. It can be on the overall artistic merit of the graphic design. It can be on the wittiness of the headline. Or on how much you like the photo. Or on the memories it evokes. Or any other criteria that comes to mind.

I hope this will be fun. I guess we'll find out!

The Tabloid Cover Derby winning cover will be blown up to poster size and displayed in the lobby of the CPF's international headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden!

[seawolf17]

Dude! Good times. Looking forward to it.

[Guest d'Kong76]

When did they move HQ from Reykjavik to Stockholm? No one
tells me anything!

[Guest cooby classic]

Me either! I thought it was still in Mexico City!

[Guest cooby classic]

Will that be here or at the facebook site?

[Benjamin Grimm]

The voting will be here, starting tomorrow (Tuesday, November 3).

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Sweet. Love the tabs.

[Centerfield]

I am really looking forward to this.

It's funny how so many cool things about this place requires the free time of Ben Grimm.

Thanks for doing this.

[Zvon]

Ha, this is way kool. May I suggest the winning cover be enlarged to the size of a small building.

[Benjamin Grimm]

You'll have to take that up with the people in Stockholm.

[Zvon]

Oh, I wasn't finished.

I furthermore propose we move the CPF's international headquarters to Helsinki, Finland, home of the 1952 Summer Olympics.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Maybe when this is over you can Photoshop the winning cover onto the side of a Helsinki skyscraper.

[Zvon]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Maybe when this is over you can Photoshop the winning cover onto the side of a Helsinki skyscraper.

That'll be a piece of strudel (or whatever the hell passes for cake over there).

[Guest Mets Willets Point]

Ladies and gentlemen, the tallest building in Helsinki!

[Zvon]

And this, I imagine, is the view. What's that short empire state building looking thing? That'll do.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I gathered up a couple of more post-World Series covers, but the field is now locked down.

There are a total of 368 covers in this competition: 133 from the Daily News, 124 from the New York Post, and 111 from Newsday.

The covers are divided into four groups, and tomorrow we'll start voting on the eighth and final first-round poll for Group 1, February through May. Group 2 gets started on Wednesday.

Here are the breakdowns by Group:

	Daily News	New York Post	Newsday	Total
Group 1 (Feb-May)	28	28	23	79
Group 2 (Jun-Jul)	27	26	29	82
Group 3 (Aug-Sep)	30	29	28	87
Group 4 (Oct-Nov)	48	41	31	120

Newsday fell behind in the counts in Group 4 primarily because they had very few front pages devoted to the Mets in October, while the News and the Post frequently devoted both the front and the back pages to the Mets.

[Benjamin Grimm]

All eight polls from Round One, Group One have now closed, and it is time to reveal the first eight covers that will advance to the second round. The Daily News did well in Group One, with four of the eight winning covers. The New York Post and Newsday each have two winning entries in this group.

Round Two voting will begin in early December. The eight winning covers will be seeded according to the percentage of votes received in the first round. If any polls end in a tie, there will be a special three-day tie-breaker polling thread that will allow us to explore the depths of our feelings about each cover.

Round 1.1.1, Number 1 Seed: N.Y. CITI (New York Post)
Round 1.1.2, Number 6 Seed: YOU'RE DAMN WRIGHT (Daily News)
Round 1.1.3, Number 7 Seed: OLD TIMER'S DAY (Newsday)
Round 1.1.4, Number 8 Seed: QUEENS FOR A DAY (Daily News)
Round 1.1.5, Number 2 Seed: de7 TRAIN (Daily News)
Round 1.1.6, Number 3 Seed: RUNAWAY TRAIN! (New York Post)
Round 1.1.7, Number 5 Seed: JUAN DIRECTION (Daily News)
Round 1.1.8, Number 4 Seed: THOR'S DAY (Newsday)

Tentative schedule:
December 5: THOR'S DAY vs. JUAN DIRECTION
December 6: RUNAWAY TRAIN! vs. YOU'RE DAMN WRIGHT
December 7: de7 TRAIN vs. OLD TIMER'S DAY
December 8: N.Y. CITI vs. QUEENS FOR A DAY

[duan]

Can I just say, this is a brilliant feature.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Thank you! Participation seems to be pretty good, so I assume that people are enjoying it, at least a little bit.

[Centerfield]

When the covers go head to head, I am looking forward to re-capping my game experiences in the thread.

I think it will be a lot of fun to re-live those fun games from 2015.