Sunday, September 13, 2020

Dude (Looks Like a Custom Card)

Today's entry has some Hall of Fame connections.

The man on the original card is the son of a baseball Hall-of-Famer.

The man on the custom card is a well-known rock & roll Hall-of-Famer.

Here's the original:


1959 Topps #384, Dave Sisler


Now add some long brown hair and distinct American rock vocals. Any idea who the look-alike is?

Here are some hints:

If he were an umpire, after calling ball four he might point to first base and tell the batter to Walk this Way.

If he were a pitcher who threw a no-hitter, he might say the victory filled him with Sweet Emotion.

Instead of baseball cards in the attic, he might say he's got Toys in the Attic.

Enough hints? Okay, here's the custom:






The eyeglasses are not Steven Tyler originals. I borrowed a pair from Dave Sisler to complete the look.

Details for the rest of the card: I listed Mr. Tyler's position as "vocals-harmonica" with a hyphen, which helps give a wink back to some of the original 1959 cards that listed multiple fielding positions. The team name switched from Red Sox to Aerosmith, of course, and I swapped out the Red Sox mascot for an Aerosmith logo, color and outline to match. I also found an example of Mr. Tyler's autograph online and added it in place of Mr. Sisler's.

Speaking of Mr. Sisler, he had a pretty good pitching career across seven years and four teams. (Pretty bright guy too, going to Princeton on an academic scholarship while playing on the baseball and basketball teams.)

Career numbers as a starter and reliever?

38-44, 4.33 ERA, 12 CG, 1 SHO, 28 SV, 355 SO

And his Hall-of-Fame father? None other than George Sisler.

As for Steven Tyler and Aerosmith, what can I say? I was a big fan back in my pre-teen and teenage days. In fact, Permanent Vacation was the first album audio cassette I ever owned.

Overall, I prefer the raw, hungry, 1970s version of Aerosmith above all other vintages. (Although the album Pump, released toward the tail end of 1989, was a really good one too.)

But even with all that said, I couldn't leave this custom card on its own.

Why?

Because you can't mention Steven Tyler without mentioning the other front man in the band, guitarist Joe Perry.

And because the multi-player cards in the 1959 set provide a perfect template, it was only natural to create this card:






When you consider the alliteration that's present in some of those 1959 multi-player cards, such as Cubs' Clubbers, Keystone Combo, and Batter Bafflers, you'll see that "Toxic Twins" works just perfectly.

And similar to the Kel Mitchell-Kenan Thompson combination card I did a few months ago, I think I like this Toxic Twins custom even a little better than the Steven Tyler custom up top.

So that's that. Another fun project completed. And now I'm going to wrap it up with one of my favorite Aerosmith tunes, fittingly titled Combination:




Any Aerosmith fans out there? Favorite song? Favorite album? Share in the comment section.

Thanks for reading, as always.

11 comments:

  1. I knew it would be Tyler. Another fine creation! Toxic Twins is spot on too. I've never been into Aerosmith but "Dream On" is one of my favorite 70s songs. Mere poignant to me as I age, the years passing. Off to youtube now...

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    1. Nice guessing, Julie! Glad you enjoyed the cards. Hopefully I didn't send you down a very deep YouTube rabbit hole.

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  2. Nice work on these! I don't mind some Aerosmith now and then. For a favorite song, I might go with "Livin' On The Edge" or "Janie's Got A Gun".

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  3. Both of those customs are fantastic! But if I had to pick one, I'd go with the Toxic Twins. I wouldn't classify myself as a huge Aerosmith guy, but I grew up listening to their music. Sweet Emotion would probably be my favorite song from them. But Dream On is a classic too.

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    1. Ooh. After seeing Gavin's comment... I'd throw "Janie's Got A Gun" into the mix as well.

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    2. Thanks Fuji! And more excellent song selections there. Aerosmith have quite a list of songs to choose from, don't they?

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  4. I tried to read Tyler's memoir, but it reads like he talks, which isn't exactly clear and coherent... Great custom though!

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    1. Thanks Matt! I didn't realize Tyler had a memoir. Clarity and coherence aside, the stories that guy must have...

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  5. Great cards! I think I like the combo card even better than the Tyler solo. They're not my favorite band ever, but I do like quite a few of their songs, and since they've been around so long I could probably make an entire double album of songs I really like by them. Believe it or not I enjoyed Nine Lives quite a bit, so I'll go with something a little more obscure off that one like Ain't That a Bitch, or maybe Falling in Love (Is Hard on the Knees). Awesome post!

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    1. Thanks, Shoebox! I agree with you on the combo card. Thanks also for the additions to the playlist. That album gets lost in the shuffle for me.

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