Tabloid Cover Derby 2016

[Benjamin Grimm]

Current brackets, as of the beginning of the third round.

[Centerfield]

Some great matchups coming up. The long awaited Lugo-Gsellman deathmatch. Plus Terry versus Asdrubal in what I think are the two best moments and covers of the season.

[bmfc1]

Yo's agents like this contest: "New Stat for a Slugger: Back Page Appearances" http://nyti.ms/2j6e4Gi

[Benjamin Grimm]

Tomorrow we'll see the final poll from Round 3, the long-awaited matchup between WET & WILD! and 11th HEAVEN. After that, we'll take a break for a few days before Round 4 gets underway. At the conclusion of the fourth round, our Final Four will have been established.

[Guest sharpie]

If Game Set Match goes down (and it is currently losing) it looks like the Post will be eliminated from this competition. Heads will roll at NewsCorp.

[Benjamin Grimm]

There's still one other Post cover in the mix: SEEDS OF LIFE, which currently holds an 11-4 lead over Newsday's IN A PINCH in poll 3.2.1.

[Guest themetfairy]

What's the remaining schedule? When does the final round of voting begin?

[Benjamin Grimm]

There's the potential that this may change if there's a need to wait for tiebreakers, but right now the schedule looks like this:

Round Four, with four polls reducing the field from eight covers to four, will run from Monday, January 16 through Thursday, January 19.

Round Five will be two polls: Group One winner vs. Group Two winner, and Group Three vs. Group Four. Both will kick off on January 26.

Round Six is one poll, for the Championship, and that's scheduled for February 2.

[Guest themetfairy]

That works for me!

How long will the final round be open?

Absent tiebreakers I don't have an issue. And I shouldn't have an issue while on vacation, but one never knows....

[Benjamin Grimm]

Each poll runs for exactly seven days. So the final poll, which will kick off on February 2, will end on the 9th, at the same time of day that the poll was opened.

[Guest themetfairy]

That should work!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Current brackets, through the end of the third round:

[Benjamin Grimm]

With a new Tabloid Cover Derby winner set to be named in three weeks, people have been wondering about the fate of YES-PEDES, last year's winner which has been on display in our headquarters lobby in Stockholm. Well, the exciting news is that YES-PEDES is embarking on a world tour, with stops in art museums in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Terre Haute, and New York before settling in to its permanent home at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The cover is currently on display at the Louvre in Paris, where it has temporarily displaced the famed Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci! For details about tour places and dates, check in with Maja at the front desk.




And speaking of Maja...

Apparently since we last checked in with her she's become a bit of a celebrity in Sweden. She's had a glamorous makeover, and she's now starring in a reality show, Maja: Ut Från Bakom Skrivbordet, which airs on Sweden's SVT network. Negotiations are underway for the show to be available in the United States on Netflix or Hulu some time in 2018.

[bmfc1]

St. Petersburg? The Mets left "St. Pete" years ago! Oh, not THAT St. Petersburg.

[Edgy MD]

Probably a good idea to start keeping our eyes open for her successor, no? No way she comes back.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, it's probably just a matter of time.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Bumping this to the new page.

With a new Tabloid Cover Derby winner set to be named in three weeks, people have been wondering about the fate of YES-PEDES, last year's winner which has been on display in our headquarters lobby in Stockholm. Well, the exciting news is that YES-PEDES is embarking on a world tour, with stops in art museums in Paris, London, Amsterdam, Berlin, St. Petersburg, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Terre Haute, and New York before settling in to its permanent home at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. The cover is currently on display at the Louvre in Paris, where it has temporarily displaced the famed Mona Lisa portrait by Leonardo da Vinci! For details about tour places and dates, check in with Maja at the front desk. And speaking of Maja... Apparently since we last checked in with her she's become a bit of a celebrity in Sweden. She's had a glamorous makeover, and she's now starring in a reality show, Maja: Ut Från Bakom Skrivbordet, which airs on Sweden's SVT network. Negotiations are underway for the show to be available in the United States on Netflix or Hulu some time in 2018.

[Centerfield]

Ha! Love it. Is that Lucas Duda in the crowd of tourists?

I wouldn't be so sure that Maja is gone. That type of celebrity can be short-lived. For years they said Vanna White would leave Wheel of Fortune.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yes, that is Lucas Duda at the Louvre! Good eye!

[seawolf17]

I wish Maja would return my calls. I thought we had something special.

[Guest cooby]

See that line at the Louvre? They all thought that too, seawolf

[Benjamin Grimm]

Cooby, what exactly are you implying about Maja?

[Benjamin Grimm]

2014 Miss Sweden, Camilla Hansson, is back, striking her favorite pose, to showcase the covers that comprise this year's Final Four!



The latest brackets:

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

That entire Northwest bracket in addition to being beset by VOTER FRAUD is a complete dog as compared to, the Southeast. I wonder if next year the committee will consider seeding not based on dates but by random draw or some other way.

[Benjamin Grimm]

I've toyed with the idea of seeding the 32 first-round winners by vote percentage. That's how the seeing is currently done, but within the four "groups."

Here's how they would have been ranked if there weren't the four groups. (Final Four covers in bold.)

1 WIL POWER!
2 11th HEAVEN
3 YA GOTTA RELIEVE!
4 METS FIND NIMMO!
5 CES BOOM BAH!
6 SULTAN OF SWAAT
7 IN A PINCH
8 WORLD SERIOUS
9 IN COMPLETE CONTROL
10 THE HAIR APPARENT!
11 GAME SETH MATCH
12 DOZEN GET ANY BETTER
13 THAT'S TERRIFIC
14 SIGH OF RELIEF
15 FROM MEEK TO MIGHTY
16 BLADDER UP
17 HAMMERS & THOR
18 WET & WILD!
19 LIKE OLD TIMES
20 AMAZIN' OFFSEASON
21 YO GOTTA BE KIDDING!
22 METS IN A LANDSLIDE
23 HOPE
24 SEEDS OF LIFE
25 YO & BEHOLD
26 FAB FOUR!
27 T.J. MAXX!
28 ALL TOO FAMILIA
29 SWEEPING THE COUNTRY
30 GRAND FINALE!
31 MATZ INCREDIBLE!
32 WHAT A HAM

In the second round, WIL POWER would have faced WHAT A HAM, and in the third round, the winner would have gone up against the winner of BLADDER UP vs. HAMMERS & THOR. 11th HEAVEN would have faced MATZ INCREDIBLE and then the winner of FROM MEEK TO MIGHTY vs. WET & WILD. And so on.

[Centerfield]

Thank god for this Cover Derby. I can't imagine how boring this winter would have been without it. I don't know what we will talk about once this ends.

I guess by that time Yoenis Cespedes will be driving his cars to spring training. Or Matt Harvey will start peeing again.

[Benjamin Grimm]

So should we do it again in 2017?

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

Not to create any additional burden on the hardworking folks in Sweden but I feel the contest would be better served if there was more guidance from the home office as to what the voters are expected to be judging for. Seemed like too many contests went the way of the story associated with the cover and not the cover itself.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Yeah, that surprised me too. People voting based on the sidebar and whether it was good news or bad news for the Yankees struck me as bizarre.

[Centerfield]

Yes, definitely bring it back. It's a great way to re-live the season.

I tend to vote on a number of factors, the story involved, the picture, the headline, the sidebar, everything. I like that the rules are open-ended. But I'm fine if you guys want to tailor those next year.

Not really about the competition but in just re-living all the great moments of the season.