Tabloid Cover Derby 2017 (Downsized version)

[Benjamin Grimm]

The second week of voting is now complete, and five more covers have joined our Sweet Sixteen alongside the five from the first week. (See above.)

The ten covers that have advanced so far include four from the New York Post and three each from the Daily News and Newsday.

The final three polls of Round One will be posted on Monday through Wednesday of next week. Second round voting will begin on Wednesday, December 6.

[Edgy MD]

Three straight covers with stories of Mets pitchers getting rocked in a manner that portended their season going off the rails.

I'm kind of surprised GOD OF BLUNDER beat THORRIBLE.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The third week of voting was abbreviated due to the Thanksgiving holiday. Three more covers have now advanced to the Sweet Sixteen, bringing the total number of second-round entries to 13. The winners so far are pretty evenly distributed among the three publications, with five from the Daily News and four each from the Post and Newsday.

Second-round voting will begin a week from today, on Wednesday, December 6.

[Benjamin Grimm]

First-round voting is now complete, with three more covers being added to the group of sixteen finalists. Our field now consists of six covers each from The Daily News and Newsday, and four from the New York Post.

This year marks Newsday's best showing in the Sweet Sixteen. In 2015, at this point we had eight covers from the Post, five from the News, and three from Newsday. In 2016, it was nine from the News, five from Newsday, and only two from the Post. (One of those two Post covers, SEEDS OF LIFE, did make it to the final round.)

This year, for the first time, all finalists are arranged in one large bracket, ranked from 1 to 16 based on percentage of votes received in their first-round poll.

The second-round polls will be posted on each of the next eight business days. After this, we'll have our Elite Eight and we'll take a break for the holidays. Round three, which will determine the much-coveted Final Four rankings, will begin in early January.

[Benjamin Grimm]

The three polls from last week have now closed. In Wednesday's poll, between two Daily News covers, TRESPEDES defeated TAB CALLOWAY. On Thursday, Newsday's HARVEY WALLBANGERS beat HERE WE YO! of the Daily News. And on Friday, THANK YOU, CARDS, again from Newsday, eliminated the New York Post's GLORY JAYS.

When this week's polls close next Friday, we'll have our eight third-round entries. The Tabloid Cover Derby is, after today's poll between two Jacob deGrom covers from Newsday, taking a break for the Christmas holidays and we'll resume our voting on January 2.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Second-round voting is now complete, and our eight finalists include four from Newsday, three from the Daily News, and one from the New York Post.

Newsday so far is having its best year in this competition. In 2015 it didn't place any covers in the Elite Eight and last year there were only two. The Post, meanwhile, is staking all of its hopes on IN THE BEGINNING.

We'll now resume our holiday break from voting. The third round will begin on January 2 and we'll start to narrow our field from eight covers to four.

[Zvon]

Grimm, are you doing all the photoshop work? If so you have really become an excellent creator of "pictures that never were". Kudos 2 u!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Thank you, but what makes you think that these aren't actual photos?

[Zvon]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Thank you, but what makes you think that these aren't actual photos?

lol

I've been to our headquarters in Stockholm. I took the off season tour on my vacation. Everything in that lobby is blue and orange! Even the receptionists uniform! Even the garbage. EVERYTHING I tells ya!

[Centerfield]

If I had to bet now, I think Mr. 300 takes the crown.

[Benjamin Grimm]

We'll be taking another break as we wait for the voting for the third-round polls to complete. When this round is done, we'll have our Final Four, and semi-final voting will take place on January 15. If all goes according to schedule, we'll be revealing our winning cover on January 29 in Stockholm!

[Edgy MD]

Are we making progress on the long-hoped for Roxette appearance?

[Benjamin Grimm]

We're having trouble booking people for the ceremony. We're still working on getting Maja to attend.

[Centerfield]

Just want to put out there that we are totally available.

[Guest cooby]

I was hoping for ABBA

[Edgy MD]

That's a real budget buster. It was either the ABBA reunion or a mobile-optimized site this year. Tough choice.

[Benjamin Grimm]

We have completed our third round of voting, and, similar to last year, we have a Final Four consisting of two covers from the Daily News and one each from the New York Post and Newsday.

In our three years of Tabloid Cover Derby, seven Daily News covers have reached the Final Four, as have three from the Post and two from Newsday.

DAILY NEWS:
YES-PEDES, CON4TO, TEAM OF DESTINY (2015)
CES BOOM BAH!, METS IN A LANDSLIDE (2016)
TRESPEDES, GOD OF BLUNDER (2017)

NEW YORK POST:
NY CITI (2015)
SEEDS OF LIFE (2016)
IN THE BIG INNING (2017)

NEWSDAY:
11th HEAVEN (2016)
THANK YOU, CARDS (2017)

On Monday, we'll begin our semi-final voting, with TRESPEDES taking on GOD OF BLUNDER and IN THE BEGINNING facing off against THANK YOU, CARDS.

Be there!

[Benjamin Grimm]

And... for being featured on Final Four covers, Jose Reyes, Noah Syndergaard, Yoenis Cespedes, and Wilmer Flores will each receive a copy of the Tabloid Cover Derby home game!

[Zvon]

^ And you're all becoming great photo manipulatists as well. WTF?

And Grimm.....EVEN THE DOG HIM/HERSELF! (orange & blue)

Well, maybe only Grimm and batmags. And dinosuar jesus. And.....
*goes to look in old Wilpon In History thread.

Zvons new catch phrase : "You're waterin' me down. bro!"

[Benjamin Grimm]

We now know who will be playing in this year's Super Bowl, but more importantly, we also know the Tabloid Cover Derby finalists for 2017. The New York Post's IN THE BIG INNING will face off against the Daily News' GOD OF BLUNDER. It's a final matchup that demonstrates how unpredictable the Tabloid Cover Derby can be!





Voting begins tomorrow! The winner will be announced next week in Stockholm. We're having a little trouble setting up the ceremony. Unlike the previous two years, the Swedish Royal Family has refused to participate. The Mets have yet to commit to sending a representative. A rather unenthusiastic Maja has been non-committal. We have, at least, managed to book an actress from a popular 1980s sitcom. Unfortunately, we do not yet have a venue for the ceremony, but the gang in the Stockholm office is frantically working on making arrangements. I'm sure we'll figure something out!

[Guest d'Kong76]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: The Mets have yet to commit to sending a representative.

Typical cheapass muthahumpers that they are, I'm not surprised.

[Zvon]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: We now know who will be playing in this year's Super Bowl......

And I won't hear the end of it til it's over.

Two of my brothers and this entire area are going batshit. I will watch this Superbowl and root for the Eagles, tho, and enjoy it. It's great to not really care who wins.

Did I just pull a Yogi-ism?

Edited January 22, 2018 by Guest

[Zvon]

If I forget or am not around for the last leg please Email me before the final tally Ben. I don't expect any problems, but, wacky things have been going down and there's that "mind like a sieve" thing.

[Centerfield]

I can't seem to be able to post the covers here, but Jeff Wilpon clearly wants to win TCD 2018. Both Newsday and the Post feature him this morning.

Fueling my conspiracy theory that the Daily News is compromised, today they decide to run a cover featuring Barry Bonds and Roger Clemens.

Can't seem to find a link to the covers that allows them to be posted here. I guess you can only access those from Sweden.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Where are you seeing the Newsday cover? They've changed their page where I used to go for the covers, in an apparent attempt to self-sabotage their chances in future competitions. I was able to grab today's from the Newsday Sports Twitter feed, but I'd like to think that there's a more reliable source.

[Centerfield]

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Where are you seeing the Newsday cover? They've changed their page where I used to go for the covers, in an apparent attempt to self-sabotage their chances in future competitions. I was able to grab today's from the Newsday Sports Twitter feed, but I'd like to think that there's a more reliable source.

I saw it on someone's twitter.

[Benjamin Grimm]

Voting has closed for the final thread of the 2017 Tabloid Cover Derby, and the Daily News' GOD OF BLUNDER has defied all odds and become the first "bad news" cover to win this esteemed competition. The Daily News has now produced the winning cover in all three years of the Tabloid Cover Derby.

2017 CHAMPION COVER
GOD OF BLUNDER
New York Daily News, May 1, 2017





The winning cover was revealed this afternoon in a ceremony held Sweden's capital city of Stockholm. The Royal Family declined to participate, so last year's venue, the Royal Palace, was not available. An impromptu ceremony was held instead in a side street that gets little traffic. The Mets did not choose to send a representative this year, but the school children of Sullivan County, Tennessee, through car washes and bake sales, raised enough money to send Kingsport Mets mascot Slider to Stockholm. Also on hand were Family Ties star Tina Yothers; former ABBA member Agnetha Fältskog; Maja, our disinterested and reluctant receptionist; and the ghost of actress Cate Blanchett, who, curiously, is neither Swedish nor dead.




After the ceremony the cover was installed in the lobby of the Kran Pool Forum Internationella Huvudkontoret in Stockholm. Maja has changed to her business attire and is back at her day job as our receptionist.

Maja also wants everyone to know that her Swedish reality series, Maja: Ut Från Bakom Skrivbordet will begin airing in the United States (with English subtitles) on March 3 on The ZAPP! Network. If you don't get The ZAPP! Network, call your cable or satellite provider today!



As the featured player on the winning cover, Mets pitcher Noah Syndergaard will receive a 1974 Chevrolet Malibu Classic!


And, for being featured on the highest ranked New York Post and Newsday covers, respectively, Mets infielders Wilmer Flores and Jose Reyes will be awarded a year's supply of Rice-A-Roni (The San Francisco Treat), Turtle Wax (It gives a hard shell finish) and a copy of the Tabloid Cover Derby Home Game, available wherever fine toys and games are sold!






The final bracket:




Thanks to all who participated in the 2017 Tabloid Cover Derby! We hope you had fun, we hope you learned something, and we'll see you again in November!

[MFS62]

Great job.
Heart felt thanks.

Later

[bmfc1]

Great work, Mr. Grimm.
Google translated the title of Maja's reality series as "Out from behind the desk".

[Centerfield]

Tina Yothers looks sheepish to be there. Just like she did in all of the later seasons of Family Ties. I think Jennifer Keaton is the most egregious example of "cute baby child grows up, loses relevance, is replaced by another baby (no matter how improbable) to restore cuteness." It didn't help that she entered her awkward years at the exact same time. I think by the end of the show she ended up just being the new kid's babysitter. Raven Symone coming in as Rudy aged out was another example. Others escape my mind.

I can see Maja's buttcheek.

Terrific job BG! The TCD was the only fun thing to happen in the 2017 season!