Exactly 38 Years Ago, a Crucial Keith Hernandez Error Ruined Their Day

If you’re a Seinfeld fan and you’ve been around this blog long enough, the title of this post probably gave you a good idea as to what you’ll find when you scroll down. But let's provide a brief background first.

 

Way back in 2019, this whole custom card thing started off with a vintage-inspired design featuring George Costanza knocking out Bette Midler in a collision at home plate.

 

 

A few years later, along came Elaine, wearing a Baltimore Orioles uniform and celebrating a home run with some of her trademark little kicks.

 

 

Then, most recently, Jerry appeared on the Pittsburgh Pirates—even though he clearly didn’t wanna be a pirate.

 

 

 

There was only one more member of the fab four to capture on cardboard. And now it’s ready.

 

 

It’s Cosmo Kramer, of course! 

If you zoom in for a better shot of the action, you'll see that it recreates the scene from June 14, 1987 at Shea Stadium (exactly 38 years ago!), when Kramer was hit by some spit that he and Newman wrongly assumed came from Keith Hernandez. Kramer is yelling out, “I’m hit!”, while Roger McDowell, the "second spitter" and true culprit of the infamous crime, is visible in the bushes behind the fence. 

 

For a refresher, here’s the scene from the Seinfeld episode:

 

When I was thinking about how to depict Kramer on his card, it didn’t take long for that post-game incident to come to mind. After all, the other three customs in this set have baseball-related themes in one way or another. I wanted Kramer’s card to have one, too.

 

The challenge was coming up with the perspective and angles to make it work. In the video evidence, Roger McDowell was off to the side, in the bushes, while Kramer was more in the foreground. I wondered if I’d be able to get it right.

 

Thankfully, I found a card from the original 1956 set with a built-in fence along the side. It gave me a nice anchor point for McDowell, and also allowed a good amount of room to show Kramer as he’s being hit by the “magic loogie”.

 

And if you look closely at Kramer’s clothing, you’ll see that I tried to match it up with what he was actually wearing in the Seinfeld episode. Adapting so much of the scene into the card was fun, for sure.

 

And with that, the fab four set is complete.

 

 

 

 

These cards definitely challenged my creativity and overall design skills, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. There's probably room to add a couple more cards to the set, featuring characters like Newman, or David Puddy (who'd be on the New Jersey Devils, of course). However, I think for now I like it as is.

 

How do you think the set turned out? If you've got a favorite, let me know in the comment section.

 

Thanks for reading, as always!