Back Page Barometer (7/9-7/15)

In which we gauge the popularity of New York’s major league franchises by using the ultimate indicator: appearances on the back page of The Post and The Daily News.

Visit here to see the headlines each day:
www.nydailynews.com/front/covers
www.nypost.com/frontback.html

Well, we here at GPC running behind. This "Back Page Barometer" is already five days late. In fact, another installment is due in just another two days (let's hope we can get that one in on time). With that in mind, and the awareness that much of this information is already obsolete, we're gonna make this a quick one. Quick, however, can still mean awesome. We still intend to be awesome. Don't worry about that.

Weekly Totals ("positive" and "negative" refers to the slant of the headline):

Total Baseball Covers: 14 (9 positive, 5 negative)
News: 7 (4 positive, 3 negative)
Post: 7 (5 positive, 2 negative)

Yankee Covers: 12 (9 positive, 3 negative)
News: 6 (4 positive, 2 negative)
Post: 6 (5 positive, 1 negative)

Met Covers: 2 (negative)
News: 1
Post: 1

This was a strange seven days for the tabs. It was hard for them to get in a rhythm, what with the All-Star break floating around in the middle of the week like a Charlie Hough knuckleball. The tabs were like Geno Petralli trying to catch said knuckleball, scurrying all around looking for anything relating to that deceptive white sphere. Yes, the All-Star break meant no meaningful baseball action for three whole days! Oh, the Humanity!

The Spice of Life: Before the aforementioned All-Star break, the tabs started the week with some unusual cover choices. Rather than marching in step like usual, they courteously divided the baseball stories amongst themselves. This meant on Saturday (the 9th), the News highlighted the Mets (horrendous) 6-5 loss to the Pirates ("The Pitts"), while the Post went with a Yanks victory. The next day, they switched. The News put the Yanks on the cover (an 8-7 loss to the Indians), while the Post went with the Metropolitans (who lost to the Buccos yet again).

We here at GPC continue to advocate for increased increased back-cover discrepancies between the two papers. After all, variety is (see bold-faced type at top of previous paragraph for conclusion to this sentence)

Filling the Void: Three whole days without baseball! What's a scandal-sheet to do? What are sports-inclined straphangers supposed to read? Both tabs did their best to fill the void. They really had to stretch on Tuesday the 12th, when they each reached back and relied on their favorite Yankee, Gary Sheffield, who is seemingly never at a loss to say something negative. Sheff apparently warned the Red Sox not to mess with A-Rod, like Catcher Jason Varitek did a year ago. "Don't Mess With A-Rod!" screamed the Post.

Meanwhile, Sheffield also said he would not play in Major League Baseball's post post-season World Cup-styled "World Tournament", scheduled for November. Check out the News' headline, at the top of this post. It's like he's telling the headline itself that he refuses to play. Hey, Sheff! The tournament's not until November! Step back into the batter's box and finish your at-bat. You can point menacingly at 48-point type after the game.

Let's End This: You said it, bold-face type. Here are the season totals (there have been 3.8 Yankee covers for every Met cover):

Baseball Covers: 191 (98 positive, 92 negative, 1 neutral)*
News: 95 (48 positive, 47 negative)
Post: 96 (50 positive, 45 negative, 1 neutral)

Yankee Covers: 150 (75 positive, 75 negative)
News: 74 (36 positive, 38 negative)
Post: 76 (39 positive, 37 negative)

Met Covers: 39 (23 positive, 16 negative)
News: 21 (12 positive, 9 negative)
Post: 18 (11 positive, 7 negative)

*(there has been one Post baseball cover unrelated to Mets or Yankees, and one featuring both equally).