i am trying to solve a puzzle, and i just found a big piece

ever since i first saw this card in 1998

i have been fairly certain that it features a photo that was taken on may 11, 1997. i had no way to prove it - and, spoiler alert, i still don't - but i figured it was the day of one of very few (it turns out, one of two) day games between the dodgers and expos played at dodger stadium in 1997.  the reason for my interest is that i was in attendance on may 11, and i was really hoping to be able to connect the card to that game.

the card remains one of my favorite dodger stadium background cards of all time even without that confirmation of me being there when the photo was snapped as it features one of my favorite players ever along with an angle and part of dodger stadium not typically seen on cardboard.

fast forward to just before christmas last year and i was shopping for some 2022 stadium club cards. i looked, as i always do, at images for all the teams to see if there are some non-dodger cards that i should add to my collection. that's when i stumbled upon this card

i knew right away that vladdy was sitting on the step of the visitor's dugout in dodger stadium because of the blue seats behind him, along with the light standards and the awning.  here's a look at the larger image

you can see the top of the diamondvision board in the photo which sat above the left field pavilion. once i found the image on getty's site, i saw that it was taken on may 11, 1997! i did a quick comparison between the two cards and see that in both photos, vladdy is wearing a blue undershirt that does not show any sleeves. he also has a gold chain, although it is not as noticeable on the confirmed may 11 photo. he is signing a baseball in each photo, but it looks like the pen he is using is different so i can't conclusively tie the two pictures together.

anyway, i'll go ahead and add the 2022 stadium club card to my mini collection of cards that feature games i attended in person, but will hold off on that 1998 upper deck card until i have some more conclusive evidence. the game was one of the last games i went to before i moved out of southern california, and i was glad to see vladdy for the first time before i moved to an american league town. vladdy was 3 for 5 with 2 rbi, by the way, as the expos beat the dodgers in 10 innings.

here's my ticket stub from the game:

note that it was camera day which makes me more confident that the 1998 upper deck card features a photo from may 11. it's too bad that upper deck didn't use any obvious camera day photos in 1998 like they did in a couple of 1997 sets (with photos from 1996's camera day).

i am also still looking for confirmation that curt schilling's 1998 fleer ultra card features a photo of him prior to the 1997 opening day game at dodger stadium. that's another game i attended in person, and while i am fairly confident that the card features a photo from that day, i don't know for sure.

in the meantime, i did add a few more cards to my "games i've seen in person collection" from this year's update and chrome update releases:

chris archer started the first game of the two-game dodgers/twins series that i attended, and this purple refractor parallel uses a photo from that outing

clayton kershaw's 2022 update card did not make it in to the chrome set, but i did find an extra rainbow parallel from update

for the mini-collection along with a chris paddack card from chrome update

paddack started the game opposite kershaw.

i've mentioned before that i hope to get to some games in 2023 and i hope that something card worthy happens!