Oct 18 2017 11:12 AM
If you've been looking for a way to relive the disappointment, the angst, and the sheer misery of the 2017 Mets season, then you're about to receive some great news!
In a press conference today at Citi Field, it was announced that the 2017 Tabloid Cover Derby will get underway on Monday, November 6. This will be the third time around for the Tabloid Cover Derby. In both of our two previous iterations, the winning cover came from the Daily News and the featured player was Yoenis Cespedes. Will this combination work magic for the third consecutive year? We're about to begin the onerous task of finding out! The winning cover, as always, will be displayed in the lobby of the CPF's international headquarters, Kran Pool Forum Internationella Huvudkontoret in Stockholm, Sweden.
Enthusiasm for this year's Derby is, admittedly, less than it had been in previous years. In 2016, for example, we were able to get Mets legend Rusty Staub and former Miss Sweden, Camilla Hansson, to appear at our kickoff announcement. This year our search for celebrities to attend our announcement ceremony was much more difficult. Even Dwight Bernard canceled on us! We were, however, fortunate enough to get Marty Silver, who worked in the Shea Stadium ticket booth from 1981 through 1983, and Bev Donaldson, who was employed at the U.S. Embassy in Stockholm from 1992 through 1995, to appear at our event. Marty and Bev seem to have made a love connection: after the press conference they were spotted enjoying an early bird special at nearby Kane's Diner in Flushing.
Because the Mets were featured on significantly fewer covers in 2017, this year's Derby will be downsized. In 2015 and 2016, we had 32 first-round polls. In 2017 there will be five rounds instead of six, and the first round will only have 16 polls. With fewer polls, we'll end up spacing them out a little more. Instead of new polls appearing seven days per week, we'll limit the launching of new polls to weekdays. We'll still vote for as many as three covers in each first-round poll, with the one cover that receives the most votes advancing, for the first time this year, directly to the Sweet Sixteen. Another change: In the past, the covers were divided into four chronological groups. After the first round, winners were seeded within each group and each group sent one representative to the Final Four. Beginning in 2017, all first-round winners will be seeded in one large group, so for the first time, an April cover can go against an October cover, for example, as early as in the second round.
In every other way, the Tabloid Cover Derby will be just like it was in the past, except that it won't be any fun. It will be a miserable trip down the darkest corners of Memory Lane.
Be sure to join us on November 6!
