Come On Baby, Cover Me
Posted: April 27th, 2009 | Filed under: Baseball, Media | 19 Comments »
Well, you already know from the last post that Zack Greinke will be on the cover of SI … the first Royals player since 1993. Here is the list of every Major League team and the last time they had the cover of Sports Illustrated.
Don’t forget to come back at 11 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday to see what is an extremely cool looking and rather unusual cover of Zack Greinke.
Arizona Diamondbacks: December 17, 2001, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson as Sportsmen of the Year.
Atlanta Braves: August 29, 2005, Jeff Francoeur is “The Natural.”*
*Technically, the last Braves cover was a vintage photo of Hank Aaron on July 23, 2007.
Baltimore Orioles: Oct. 14, 1996, Roberto Alomar, “In Your Face.”
*The previous four covers are all Cal Ripken covers. And the last non-Cal Ripken SI Cover before that was on July 18, 1994, with Mike Mussina and Ben McDonald as “Rare Birds.”
Boston Red Sox: Nov. 5, 2007, Jonathan Papelbon, “Twice is Nice.”
Chicago White Sox: October 31, 2005, Scott Podsednik swinging the bat in World Series.
Chicago Cubs: September 29, 2008, Aramis Ramireez, “Welcome to the Party.”
Cincinnati Reds: June 14, 2004, Ken Griffey, “Welcome Back!”*
*Unless you want to count the Pete Rose “Confession” cover in 2004. Part of the series …
Cleveland Indians: May 14, 2007, Grady Sizemore, “Why Sizemore Matters.”
Colorado Rockies: October 15, 2007, Jeff Francis, “Out of Thin Air.”
Detroit Tigers: August 28, 2006, Justin Verlander, “Bring It.”
Florida Marlins: February 12, 2007, Dontrelle Willis, “Sports and Global Warming.”
Houston Astros: May 24, 2004, Roger Clemens, “Bringing It Home.”
California Angels: February 24, 2004, Mike Scoscia, “Baseball Sweet Baseball.”
Los Angeles Dodgers: October 13, 2008, MannyBManny, “See Manny Run.”
Milwaukee Brewers: April 27, 1987, Rob Deer, “Brewing Up A Storm.”*
*Technically speaking, Ryan Braun was on the baseball preview cover in Marcy 2008 with Justin Upton and Troy Tulowitzki. But that’s a lot like those “League Leader” baseball cards that would have three player son them. Do those really count? Probably not.
Minnesota Twins: August 7, 2006, Joe Mauer, “American Idol.”*
*I am told this is one of the best-selling SI covers of recent years.
New York Mets: February 25, 2008, Johan Santana, “Happy Days.”
New York Yankees: April 29, 2009, C.C Sabathia, “New Hoss, New House.”
Oakland Athletics: July 17, 2000, Jason Giambi, “The New Face of Baseball.”
Philadelphia Phillies: February 23, 2009, Cole Hamels, “The Fabulous New Life of Cole.”
Pittsburgh Pirates: May 4, 1992, Barry Bonds, “Bonds Away.”*
*I think this is the last Pirates cover … for some reason the magical SI Vault, which is one of the greatest things ever, is not giving me Pirates covers.
San Diego Padres: May 13, 2002, Trevor Hoffman, “The Secret of San Diego.”
San Francisco Giants: July 7, 2008, Tim Lincecum, “The Freak.”
Seattle Mariners: July 8, 2002, Ichiro Suzuki, “The Improbably Impact of Ichiro.”
St. Louis Cardinals: March 16, 2009, Albert Pujols, “Albert Pujols Has A Message.”
Tampa Bay Rays: Nov. 3, 2008: Rocco Baldelli, “The World Series.”*
*Interesting, but best I can tell the Rays did not get their own cover in 2008. In the above cover, Baldelli was crashing into Phillies catcher Carlos Ruiz. In May, there was a cartoon Rays player holding up Derek Jeter in a comic-book cover called “Bizarro Baseball.”
Texas Rangers: June 2, 2008, Josh Hamilton, “The Unbelievable Josh Hamilton.”
Toronto Blue Jays: March 14, 2005, Three Blue Jays and writer Tom Verducci, “I was a Toronto Blue Jay.”*
*Before that you have to go to July 2000 when David Wells was on the cover with the title, “The David Wells Diet.”
Washington Nationals: May 1, 2000, Vlad Guerrero, “Exposed!”*
*Of course, this was when the Nationals were still in in Montreal. The Nationals have not been on the cover since arriving in Washington, but I would say they have a chance this year with one of those “Can Anyone Here Play This Game,” stories.
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[...] News Sources wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptWell, you already know from the last post that Zack Greinke will be on the cover of SI … the first Royals player since 1993. Here is the list of every Major League team and the last time they had the cover of Sports Illustrated. Don’t forget to come back at 11 a.m. Central Time on Tuesday to see what is an extremely cool looking and rather unusual cover of Zack Greinke. Arizona Diamondbacks: December 17, 2001, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson as Sportsmen of the Year. Atlanta Braves [...]
I know that a certain book should be on the cover in the first week of September, but probably won’t.
Thankfully the Royals have locked up Greinke, unlike the last Royals player to make the cover. Man…it’s really been a long time, hasn’t it?
Banny Log tomorrow!
Technically speaking, Ryan Zimmerman was on the fold out flap portion of the shared cover featuring Ryan Braun, Justin Upton and Troy Tulowitzki. I guess that’s like being in the trivia question on the back of one of those “League Leader” cards.
Tonight I had a moment where I realized how big Greinke is right now. I was at the AAA game here in Rochester, NY and the Scranton Yankees brought in a pitcher named Zachary Kroenke and the guys in front of me started joking, “no wonder Scranton’s unbeatable, they have Zack Greinke”. I was stunned. I think I have that bit on video, I’ll find out later.
So the Royals are joining the 21st century club for SI Covers? Yay!
But the Orioles and the Brewers still need some love.
Has nothing important happened to Milwaukee in 20 years?! (If you yell that incredulously it sounds a lot cooler).
Actually, Joe, the last Reds cover was June 14, 2004 with Ken Griffey Jr.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/featured/9993/index.htm
February 12, 2007, Dontrelle Willis – Had hiss colossal no-dive started by then or after?
As a Brewers fan, I’m used to Milwaukee not getting any love, but I figured between Braun and Fielder, there was no way the Crew had the longest cover story drought, and by a long shot, too! Clearly something needs to be done about this.
As soon as I saw the list, I knew the Brewers had to be the most distantly represented. Of course, team performance plays a part.
Easter Sunday!
Terry
You mean one of the Angels’ players died a few weeks ago and that didn’t go on the cover? What happened in sports the week that story appeared in SI that could possibly bump it from the cover?
Oh, the NBA playoffs started, so let’s have a goofy shot of Dwight Howard. Yeah, much more important.
http://vault.sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/cover/toc/11186/index.htm
So if I read this correctly, 2 of the last 3 baseball covers have had the article written by the same person. That’s pretty impressive, Joe!
Some of those heds or teases or whatever are really, really bad. The Angels especially stick out, although I’m clueless on the Phils cover too; it just sounds like it must mean something.
Dontrelle’s ERAs before the cover: 3.30, 4.02, 2.63, 3.87
Dontrelle’s ERAs since the cover: 5.17, 9.38
[...] Joe Posnanski finds the last Sports Illustrated cover for each major league team. [...]
I can attest that Mr. Mauer is quite popular with my better half who is not interested at ALL in sports.
When I tell her in the morning that the Twins have won or lost the night before she looks at me and sweetly enunciates with her French accent I – don’t – care.
So when does Banny get his cover?
[...] O’s haven’t been on SI’s cover since ‘96. The Nats never. [Joe Posnanski] [...]
[...] December 17, 2001, Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson as Sportsmen of the Year. Atlanta Braves click for more var gaJsHost = ((“https:” == document.location.protocol) ? “https://ssl.” : [...]
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