Change Up!

Mariano Rivera = AC/DC

Hall of Fame-bound New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera is known for being automatic -- for throwing 1-2-3 innings that end the game emphatically. Rivera's counterpart in the music world is the 1-3-4 automatic rock of AC/DC. These two giants do about the same exact thing every time and get the same results. Except in 2001, when the Yankees lost to Arizona and AC/DC put out that album of Cher covers, That Lady's Got Balls.

Dave Stewart/Roger Clemens = Notorious B.I.G. and Tupac

Randy Johnson/Curt Schilling = John McLaughlin/Santana

In 1973, guitar monks Carlos Santana and John McLaughlin teamed up for the spiritually advanced Love Devotion Surrender album, in which they exposed the divinity of the pentatonic scale. In 2001, Arizona Diamondbacks mound monks Curt Schilling and Randy Johnson teamed up and exposed the once-invincible New York Yankees, beating them in the World Series in seven games and offering a moment of divine glee for many people in Boston named Fitzy.

John Smoltz, Tom Glavine and Greg Maddux = Emerson, Lake and Palmer

The Atlanta Braves' trio of masterful pitchers is mirrored in the rock world by the virtuosic trio Emerson, Lake and Palmer for one main reason. As great as Smoltz, Glavine and Maddux were (a combined 873 career wins between them), the Braves only managed one World Series Championship during the 10 years the three pitched together, despite making the post-season nearly every year. In much the same way, E.L.P.'s album Tarkus -- a concept album about an armadillo/tank creature that gets beat up by a manticore, which has the body of a lion and the head of Rick Wakeman -- inexplicably was only nominated for, but never won, a Grammy.

David Wells = Meat Loaf

This one's a no-brainer. Who besides the "big-boned" crooner would work as the hefty lefty's counterpart? First of all, what's the over/under on the sheer poundage of actual meat loaf Boomer has eaten in his life? More than 40 lbs? 70? With 10 post-season wins and a perfect game pitched for the New York Yankees under his belt, Wells is familiar with the level of success Meat Loaf enjoyed in the '70s, when Bat Out of Hell ruled the world. Wells also appeared in three World Series, winning two of them, and -- as everybody knows -- "Two Out of Three Ain't Bad." Sorry.

Dennis Eckersley = Kanye West

Dennis Eckersley defined the closer role in the '80s when he made the switch to the bullpen, won the Cy Young and MVP awards, and led his team, the A's, to a 1989 Championship. Despite the accolades, all anyone ever talks about, and the only footage you ever see of him pitching, is the clip of a fateful slider he threw an injured, pinch-hitting Kirk Gibson in the 1988 World Series, who cranks it over the fence for a walk-off Game 1 Dodger win (they won the series 4-1). This is not so different from the fact that Kanye West has broken ground with his music for years but all anyone ever mentions is that one time he made a scene at the VMAs. Oh wait, there was that other time he did that at the VMAs, and then also the MTV Euro Music Awards. And the Katrina thing (actually that was pretty cool).

Dock Ellis = Jimi Hendrix

As a member of the Pittsburg Pirates, righty Dock Ellis earned a World Series ring in 1971, but it is for a no-hitter he threw versus the San Diego Padres the previous year that he's best known. According to Ellis, he was tripping on LSD for the entire game (he hadn't known he was pitching the night he showed up at the park, uh, "turned on"). At one point, remembered Ellis, "I thought I was pitching a baseball to Jimi Hendrix, who to me was holding a guitar and swinging it over the plate." 'Nuff said.

Bill "Spaceman" Lee = Alexander Skip Spence

Two space cadets who marched to the beats of different drummers, Bill Lee lofted a doomed "eephus" pitch to Reds first baseman Tony Perez that ended up on Lansdowne Street and cost the Boston Red Sox the 1975 World Series. Conversely, Skip Spence cost his band Moby Grape money and fame when he attacked drummer Don Stevenson with an axe during the recording of their second album. After a six-month stay at Bellevue, Spence effectively disappeared from the face of the earth. Bill Lee was thought to have disappeared as well, but it turned out he'd just been traded to the Montreal Expos.

Bob Gibson = The Rolling Stones

Two-time World Series champion (for the St. Louis Cardinals) Bob Gibson was a notoriously tough pitcher, feared for his style of throwing fastballs inside and continually putting hitters on their butts. His career is a string of awards and records: 9 Golden Gloves, 2 Cy Youngs, 2 World Series MVPs, 17 strikeouts in a World Series game. The only band that can come close to this litany of achievements is the Rolling Stones. Why do the Stones bear this distinction? Because their career is longer than almost anyone else's, with no missteps over the course of those 40 years. We're just going to ignore their last 20 records.

Andy Pettitte = Cher

Known as a fierce competitor and a post-season lock for many years as a New York Yankee, Andy Pettitte earned redemption among fans and detractors alike when he admitted to and apologized for using performance enhancing drugs, ostensibly to speed up the healing process while he was on the disabled list. In much the same way, artificially-enhanced chanteuse Cher has made many, many returns to the top of the pop charts, although instead of 'roids, Cher reportedly consumes the souls of the living to get off the DL.