Cosmo's Custom Card

Time for another custom look-alike card. 

 

If you've read the title of this blog post and you're a fan of a certain outrageously popular sitcom from the 1990s, you might already know what's coming. But there's a reason for the absence of my usual secretiveness: I don't think the baseball player on the original card bears very much resemblance to the look-alike. It's just that I had the sitcom on my mind.

 

Let's show the original card anyway.

 

1973 Topps #34, Pat Dobson

 

If you have a look at Mr. Dobson, his wild hair escaping from under that baseball cap, and his furrowed brow that's part-indifferent and part-pensive, you might see a resemblance to that Cosmo fella who's mentioned in the title. If you're still not there, just picture him popping in to a neighbor's apartment in a sudden and excitable way, with the front door flinging open and everything.

Alright. Here's the custom card:

 

 

 

It's Kramer from Seinfeld!

 

Check out the palm trees in the background. Maybe he's at a spring training facility in Del Boca Vista.

 

Inspiration for this card came about for two reasons: (1) I still watch the show from time to time, and (2) when I held the giveaway for the print versions of my custom cards last year, the George Costanza card was a popular choice among participants. In fact, a few readers mentioned that they'd have interest in cards featuring other characters from the show. So here we are.

As for the design elements, you'll notice I switched the position of pitcher to that of "neighbor", complete with a little Kramer silhouette. Devoted fans of the show might also notice that Kramer's face is not from a photograph, but from the famous painting of Kramer that appeared on a particular episode of Seinfeld. I had to do quite a bit of adjusting for color, contrast, and such, but I'm happy with the result.

It's almost a shame that Kramer's trademark hair is covered up by that baseball cap, but at very least I gave him a couple of those classic "hair wings" that you'd often see emerging from the sides of ballplayers' caps back in the '70s and '80s.

As for the man on the original card?

Pat Dobson had an 11-year MLB career, pitching for the Tigers, Padres, Orioles, Braves, Yankees, and Indians.

 

In 1968, just his second year in the majors, he helped the Tigers win their World Series title against the Cardinals, pitching a few innings of relief work across three games in the finals.

 

Here are some career numbers: 122 W, 129 L, 3.54 ERA, 19 saves, 1301 strikeouts, 665 walks, 2120.1 innings pitched, 74 complete games, 14 shutouts.

Dobson's best season was likely 1971, when he went 20-8 with a 2.90 ERA, 18 complete games, 4 shutouts, 187 strikeouts, and 282.1 innings pitched. He even received a few points during MVP voting at season's end.

He had a pretty good season the following year as well, earning a trip to the All-Star game as a reward.

 

As for Cosmo Kramer, maybe I'll just let these highlights do the talking.

BONUS CARD

The 1973 Topps set provided us with a number of subsets: League Leaders, Team Checklists, Playoff and World Series cards, Boyhood Photos of the Stars, All-Time Leaders, Rookie Combos, and the rather interesting Manager cards, which featured the manager front-and-center along with a few minuscule photos of his coaching staff along the side. Because Seinfeld takes place in New York, and the Yankees were featured prominently on the show, here's the Yankees manager card from the original set:

 

 

I thought I'd create a version based on Seinfeld.

 

I placed Jerry as the manager—it's his show after all—and then added George, Elaine, Kramer, and Newman as the four coaches. Then I changed "coaches" to "characters" on the top right. Note that I also changed the "manager" title on the bottom to "comedian", complete with an actual silhouette of Jerry Seinfeld.

 

As for the other characters? On the original cards, the photos of the coaches are so washed out that I decided to give that part of the card a little upgrade. You'll note that the faces of the four Seinfeld characters are easier to discern.

And there you have it. Another two Seinfeld-themed custom cards to go along with George Costanza's card from a couple of years back.

Hope you like the way they turned out. Thanks for reading, as always!