Celebrate Opening Day With Great Baseball Magazine Covers
April 4 is Major League Baseball’s opening day, with the World Champion New York Yankees playing the always dangerous Boston Red Sox at 8 pm in Fenway Park. The New York Mets open the following day, with a home game against the Florida Marlins. We’ve dug deep into our archives to present some great baseball magazine covers to celebrate the start of the season. (Cover at left: The New Yorker, February 23, 2009, illustration by Barry Blitt. The illustration features three-time American League MVP New York Yankee third baseman Alex “A-Rod” Rodriguez, who in 2009 admitted to using steroids as a player during the years 2001-2003.)
Left: Time, August 28, 1971, illustration by Bob Peak. Left-handed Oakland Athletics pitcher Vida Blue was the American League Cy Young Award winner and MVP in 1971 as he posted a 24-8 record.
Right: Esquire, July 1966, design by George Lois. “What’s Joe DiMaggio doing with himself these days?” asked the cover headline. That’s Lois posed as Joltin’ Joe in Yankee Stadium.
Left: Time, September 8, 1969, the year the New York Mets won their first World Series. Illustration by Willard Mullin, the long time New York World-Telegram sports cartoonist who created the famous Brooklyn Bum character.
Right: Sports Illustrated, August 21, 1995, marking the death of New York Yankee Mickey Mantle. The Mick played his entire 18-year career for the Yankees, winning three Most Valuable Player awards, 16 All-Star nods, and seven world championship rings. In 1956 Mantle won the Triple Crown crown, leading the American League in home runs, batting average, and RBIs. Design: Steve Hoffman. Photograph by George Silk.
Left: Jet, April 26, 1962. “Black Gold on Green Diamonds” features five African American baseball stars: New York Yankees catcher Elston Howard (1963 American League MVP, first black player on the Yankees); Chicago White Sox left fielder Saturnino Orestes Armas “Minnie” Minoso, (“The Cuban Comet,” first black player on the White Sox, he led the league in getting hit by pitches 10 times); Chicago Cubs left fielder Billy Williams (“Sweet Billy” was the 1961 Rookie of the Year); Los Angeles Dodger infielder Jim Gilliam (1953 Rookie of the Year), and New York Giants centerfielder Willie Mays, the Say Hey Kid (1951 Rookie of the Year, two-time MVP, and the man many consider to be the greatest all-around player of all time).
Right: Time, September 22, 1947. Illustration of Jackie Robinson by Ernest Hamlin Baker. Robinson was the first African American Major League Baseball player of the modern era when he broke the color line playing for the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947. He was named Rookie of the Year that year, and went on to win the MVP title in 1949.
Robert Newman is a print and online media consultant. His website is www.robertnewman.com. His Facebook page can be found here. Linda Rubes is a magazine art director and consultant.
