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d'Kong76 wrote: It's there, look at the sky to the left of CitiField on the scoreboard and you can see the top of it and how the color of the sky subtly changes below the cabling. Ah, OK, I see it. Thanks for the guidance. The 2011 Mets: We wouldn't pretend something that's there isn't.

The protective screen behind home plate seems to have been magically removed from the 2011 cover. Enjoy sitting close at your own risk.

Three 1968 All-Stars are rising over Shea Stadium and with them our hopes. At least that's my interpretation of the floating heads. It's the first time the Mets have featured players on the cover of their yearbook. Maybe they wanted to hedge (or head) their bets by doing it this way. They weren't yet established veteran stars, so let's not use their bodies. It's a beautiful image of Shea, a beautifully packed house, a beautiful perspective in a 55,000-seat stadium, a beautiful day to hand out batting helmets, I'm guessing (when they had only a handful of giveaways, they really drew), but whoever commanded, "Bring me the heads of Koosman, Grote and Seaver!" had to be trippin', yo. Whereas things were looking up entering 1969, things couldn't have been much grimmer approaching 2011, the first year of Collins and the only moments of Emaus, Hu, Boyer...the whole Dollar Store gang. But they really made the most of making Citi Field look like a fun place to be, albeit from the Blackwater Club. This was the last year in which the Mets tried their hands at a marketing slogan: "Stand With Us Now, Make The Stands Roar." What, you don't remember that? The subtle message was we're not featuring any new stars, and we don't have much to say about the old stars, but we do have a ballpark and baseball, and Mets fans have been known to enhance that experience. (They were coming off a very good home record, from which they fired the manager.) Good cover conveying that vibe, I guess. It's hard to get warm and fuzzy about 2011. But the cover is sunny and folks appear to be having a swell time. 1969 is 1969, an essential component of which was making hay from the improvements of 1968. Still, the heads...so weird. Perhaps if I'd experienced its cover in real time I'd feel more invested in it. As something I caught after the fact, despite piecing together the All-Star backstory, I can never get past the bizarre design element. 2011's cover plays error-free ball. I feel compelled to reward its effort.

Salt N Pepa's got it swingin' again... 35bw3gbDyQY

MFS62 wrote: I'm very superstitious, and s***p is like a four letter word that should not be used before the game. Fine, keep your clothes on. _Z7fV-wB2z8

The Mets quietly raised an NL East flag during the final regular-season series of 2015. No ceremony, just acknowledgment that the division had been won. It went into storage after the season, replaced in right field by the NL pennant.

dgwphotography wrote: The Mets are really socking that ball, But they can't keep a man on third at all... An Evans and an Evans And a shifting d'Arnaud Cabrera and Rivera And Danny Muno Satin near Manhattan Hessman from the bushes Recker in a pinch Lest the Phillies kick our tushes

2006 offers quite the collection of talented players. If you wish to order one, be sure to flip through the accompanying catalogue and call the toll-free number to get yours today. Only kidding. The Mets wouldn't spring for a toll-free number. But they were were generous when it came to dull, businesslike presentation. This was the last year when the Mets stressed black as a yearbook (and overall marketing) design element. It would stick around for a while longer on the field, but the Mets made a decisive move away from what had been considered contemporary that postseason when they dressed in pinstripes for Games Six and Seven of the NLCS at Shea, as if they had to be true to their own selves to stay alive. But going into 2006, the franchise fancied itself as black as it did blue and orange, and the overstay of its welcome is evident here. Photoshop must not have been as convenient to use as it would become, for the three new marquee additions -- Lo Duca, Delgado and Wagner -- are in Spring Training togs. It's a handy guide for knowing who was already a Met and who was about to become one, but it takes one out of the moment to see three guys in non-game gear. No kidding regarding the impressive array of Mets, even if only three of them still had significant primes ahead of them. We've seen most of those veterans appear on Hall of Fame ballots over the past few years, and a couple inducted. A classic "go for it" season. Not a classic cover, though. 1974: a classic cover. An inspirational cover, if I do say so myself: [fimg=360]http://i65.tinypic.com/2q3vlf4.jpg[/fimg] I sometimes mistakenly refer to the 1974 yearbook internally as the 1973 yearbook because of what it commemorates. I appreciate that it makes clear what we're coming off of. It probably helps that the Mets made essentially no moves entering 1974, so there was nothing new to hype (though to this point in Mets history, only the coming of Gil Hodges was shall we say flagged on a yearbook cover). The photo reinforced for me that pennant-winners win an actual pennant. Gave me something to look forward to heading into 1987. Seriously, this set my expectations in terms of prizes. Good to see a full Shea, too. Probably unintentional, but a nice throwback to Willard Mullin's tyke counting the house in 1965. A dollop or two of sentimentality doesn't hurt its cause, either. I got this yearbook at the first win I ever attended, purchased for me by my sister's then-boyfriend, whose passing I learned of under unexpected circumstances not quite forty years later. Simple, elegant, excellent. I love this cover.

We recently experienced our 38th Mets 3B debut since young Wright broke in on July 21, 2004. 167. Todd Frazier 03/29/2018 166. Phil Evans 09/17/2017 165. Travis d'Arnaud 08/16/2017 164. Neil Walker 08/09/2017 163. Asdrubal Cabrera 07/22/2017 162. T.J. Rivera 08/10/2016 161. Jose Reyes 07/06/2016 160. Ty Kelly 05/24/2016 159. Matt Reynolds 05/17/2016 158. Kelly Johnson 10/03/2015 157. Juan Uribe 07/25/2015 156. Danny Muno 05/25/2015 155. Ruben Tejada 05/14/2015 154. Anthony Recker 04/14/2015 153. Eric Campbell 06/05/2014 152. Omar Quintanilla 09/15/2013 151. Wilmer Flores 08/06/2013 150. Zach Lutz 06/27/2013 149. Vinny Rottino 05/28/2012 148. Ronny Cedeño 04/10/2012 147. Josh Satin 09/28/2011 146. Nick Evans 07/17/2011 145. Daniel Murphy 05/31/2011 144. Willie Harris 05/12/2011 143. Luis Hernandez 08/31/2010 142. Mike Hessman 07/29/2010 141. Justin Turner 07/19/2010 140. Wilson Valdez 08/25/2009 139. Andy Green 08/19/2009 138. Fernando Tatis 06/17/2008 137. David Newhan 09/29/2007 136. Ruben Gotay 09/07/2007 135. Damion Easley 04/19/2007 134. Julio Franco 09/10/2006 133. Eli Marrero 07/02/2006 132. Jose Valentin 05/26/2006 131. Miguel Cairo 04/21/2005 130. Chris Woodward 04/13/2005

Kudos to the whoever dug up almost nothing but action photos for the 2013 cover. That's All-Star form for displaying All-Star form. Only Richie Ashburn is left to be a portrait, and, well, he wasn't moving all that well by 1962. The Mets hosting the ASG was a big deal (certainly to the franchise) and this was a fine theme. But 1967 is a cult classic in my world. The broken step, acknowledging the imperfections of the young Mets's growing process, is a gem. The not quite regulation "Mets" is a gem if only to realize nobody was sending this to twelve lawyers to protect brand equity. The delight inherent scaling all the way up to 66 wins (a 16 1/2 game improvement -- nothing to sneeze at!) is a gem. The sticking it to the haughty rest of the league is a gem. The personification of the Mets as a kid determined to keep going is a gem, not to mention a lot less creepy that Rockwell Boy from 1980. And Mullin is a gem. I hope those who dig his work have gotten their hands on the 2013 book of his baseball cartoons, from a 38-year career that made fans everyhwere smile (the remembrances from his daughter are priceless). Anyway, I like the 2013 cover, I don't mind the busyness, but the 1967 cover from SHEA STADIUM....FLUSHING, NEW YORK is, to give the word another time at bat, a gem.

The 1980 cover always struck me as a rush job in the most literal sense. The team was sold in late January, a new GM (who oversaw everything, at least at first) took over in February, the season opened in early April. "Fellas, what are we gonna do for a yearbook cover?" was probably not among the first hundred questions asked. I appreciated the concept here, the idea that the Mets stood for good ol' baseball, but was that where their perception problems languished after the late '70s? "The People's Team" I took as a shot at the MFYs, a precursor of Curtis Granderson's pithy "True New Yorkers" are Mets fans comment and a reflection of New York being a National League town and whatever goodwill there was to be ladled from residual affection for the Mets' roots. Somewhere I have a button, bought at Shea in 1980, hailing the New Mets (25 years before Beltran and Boras). I think they were rushing around, trying to come up with something that said there's a reason you used to like us, there's a reason you used to come out to Shea, we're not the fucking de Roulets...give us and ours a try. And it was probably before Della Femina hit on The Magic is Back. The execution is pretty low-level, to put it kindly. The three players are discernible, and it's nice to think they were considered famous enough to put on the cover. Modern Day Rockwell Boy isn't appealing, however, and other than remaining unbudgingly fond of the middle portion of 1980, I can't gin up nostalgia for this nostalgic cover. 1999 is of its time and works as such. I like that they've got the four fundamentals of baseball covered by four appropriate Mets: baserunning, fielding, hitting and pitching. Three of the models chosen were state of the art at their specialties, either heading into 1999 or on an all-time basis. Leiter was the best we had for pitching. Black was, if not beautiful, certainly in style (by dint of the Mets incorporating it, that is). Perfectly fine cover for an era when yearbooks didn't stay with you. Bonus points not necessary to take this round, but bonus points for 1999 being 1999.

Mets are four above .500. Last year, they rose to four above .500 (7-3) with that 16-inning win in Miami and never sat that high again. Let's not be that way this year.

Jerry Moses, one of that handful of Mets who made it to the active roster but not to the field as a Met, 71. An All-Star catcher in the American League for the Red Sox pre-Fisk. Theoretically backed up Grote and Stearns in 1975 between the time his contract was purchased from Detroit and the time it was sold to San Diego 14 games into the season.

2016's cover is actually a triptych. Fold it out and meet nine more National League champion Mets, their manager, plus two new acquisitions and one DL holdover. Matz, Granderson, Syndergaard, Flores, Collins and d'Arnaud form the second serious as death clump (actually, Grandy is grinning), Duda, Conforto, Wheeler, Colon, Cabrera, Walker and Lagares (a smaller smile) the other. Depending on how you define the cover, it probably set a record for most Mets pictured. Can't beat that logo. Happy to be faced by five essential pennant-winners. Their scowls are suitably intimidating. Harvey's so plugged in that his ball hovers from the electricity he produces. One cover would have been sufficient to express that the 2016 Mets retained most of the 2015 Mets and the 2015 Mets were league champions. Perfectly clean motif. Good luck taking that to the plate against Willard Mullin. Did a 91-231 enterprise ever express more confidence in its future? Try to beat us, ya NL thugs. We'll distract you with our gleaming new stadium and we'll pull the welcome mat out on ya. Then we'll take ya to the World's Fair, weigh ya down with Belgian waffles and unhospitable ya all over again! Bonus points for this being the FINAL edition. If we get any more players, read about 'em in '65. This cover says everything the Mets could possibly say in 1964 and says it with charm. All at once we are on the Mets' side. Not that we weren't when we bought the yearbook, but Willard not only reinforced our love of the Mets, he made clear we were hear to beat somebody. And we won more games than we ever had before. Two more games, but the last two were at the expense of the St. Louis Cardinals, trying to clinch their own flag, so there ya go. I received the '64 yearbook as a gift when I was 19. It was the first time (despite plenty of reading) that it really sunk in that the Mets existed as the Mets before I found them. These guys on these pages are who Mets fans rooted for, just as the Mets of just a few years later and those who followed forever after would come to mean the Mets to me. They weren't just names and statistics anymore. They were Mets. The yearbook at is most powerful. One season dawned in the wake of a World Series. The other occurred nowhere near one. Yet the latter (technically the earlier) is the champion here.

With the ballpark having commenced its tenth season of activity with a five-game homestand, here are your up-to-date All-Time Citi Field Regular Season HR Leaders (Mets only, wise guy)... Duda 71 Wright 50 Granderson 38 Flores 33 Davis 30 Conforto 27 Murphy 27 Cespedes 26 Reyes 25 Cabrera 23 d’Arnaud 22 Pagan 15 Bruce 14 Walker 14 Beltran 14 Hairston 13 Nieuwenhuis 11 Bay 10 Francoeur 9 Lagares 8

Novelty was swell for an inning or so. Then when the chatter outweighed the visuals, it was back to Howie and Josh.

Cespedes's algorithm rocks.

First pitch: 2:45 PM. SNY will show replay at 8 PM.

Benjamin Grimm wrote: Do the Russian bots have any prognosis regarding when the game might get underway? The algorithm of the rain indicates it will come down in buckets of borscht for a little while.

Rain delay indicates Mother Nature's Facebook account has been hacked.

Ashie62 wrote: I'd rather "watch" the game on CBS Gametracker than on facebook. Fortunate to have local TV today. No local TV today. That's the gist of all this. No Mets production, no Phillies production, no cable, no MLB app. Just the Facecast for watching. As always, WOR has it covered on radio.

First five games, Cabrera has batted 4th, 1st, 1st, 2nd, 5th. Asdrubal is Spanish for "versatile".

Hear 'em, see 'em, log on to 'em lining up as such: Brandon Nimmo CF Yoenis Céspedes LF Jay Bruce RF Todd Frazier 3B Asdrúbal Cabrera 2B Adrián González 1B Kevin Plawecki C Noah Syndergaard RHP Amed Rosario SS

I don't think the Post has been in the sports cartooning business since the heyday of my man John Pierotti. Paul Rigby, the Page Six political cartoonist, did a team caricature to celebrate the coming of the 1977 season (both ours and the MFYs'), the first year the Post was a Murdoch publication.

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Player summaries that were kid friendly yet didn't insult the intelligence of an adult -- and I know this from reading those same yearbooks decades later. Compelling photographs that captured the warmth, the camaraderie, rivalries and quirky moments of a typical baseballf season. Next year's Yearbook Interior Derby will bear this out. Loved the spreads on Old Timers Day, All-Star Game, Hall of Fame ceremonies. Loved Rusty in a Mets uniform posing with Singleton, Foli and Jorgensen from the Expos, Seaver and Qualls (of the White Sox) standing awkwardly, players getting treatment from trainers who you didn't assume were disabling their patients, the players' kids, the fans and their banners... Interesting that the illustrated covers of the early '80s tried to evoke ye good olde days just as the Mets were pulling conclusively out of the past.