Love and cards are in the air

Out of all of the gift-giving holidays, I have the most card luck on Valentine's Day. I don't know why I get cards on Valentine's Day more than days like Christmas or my birthday -- maybe it's some sort of "see, THIS is how much I love you, I forced myself to go in the CARD AISLE" thing.

But even on this day, the card gifts are sporadic. That is, until today, when both my wife and daughter presented me with what you see above.

Those are the best Valentine's Day gifts ever. They must have been drawn in by Yasiel's charisma. Or me babbling about the beauty of this year's cards.

Whatever. All I know is I have cards, purchased by my loved ones. My girls know what's up! It only took seven years!

So let's see what's in these boxes and wrappers.

Rack packs first:

OK. I sense a visit to the return desk. My gift is defective.

Believe me, if I didn't have trade partners, I'd be right there in line behind the lady returning the lingerie. But I have a stack due to go out to ARPSmith's Sportscard Obsession and this will beef up what has been a pretty pathetic offering so far.

By the way, notice all the crushed Royals fans in the background. This is what you did Giants. Nobody likes you. Block out the two guys in the front and it's like viewing a mass funeral.

This "rainbow foil" (still looking for the rainbow) Teixeira card arrived directly after the gold abomination. I swear there is a robot packager on an assembly line somewhere who creates night owl nightmare packs and hopes I find them. I find them far too often.

I will be reserving a time period for when I decide whether this is something. It reminds me off the Topps scratch-off cards from the early 1980s. Those were fun. I hope these are.

Marlins still showing up in inserts. You've gotta credit Topps for trying.

There is a LOT going on with this card. Future Stars foil label, rookie cup, mid-80s White Sox throwbacks. And what's a guy gotta do to not be considered a "Future Star"? He hit 36 home runs last year and he's 27! Future Star? Give that guy a card with a number that ends in zero!

This is very mundane compared with past Coco Crisp cards. I wonder if Topps got a phone call from mother Crisp.

Terrific shot. Early candidate for card of the year.

There are apparently regular, silver and gold foil versions of this insert. I hate these more than ever.

I'm glad to see that the ability to maintain composure is so rare that someone who has it is specifically mentioned as a role model because of it. "Kids, see how that pitcher didn't take the ball and throw it at his manager's head? That's what you should do."

Now a Dodger. I wish I had more to say. The offseason is so long.

This is a lot better Babe Ruth Story card than the demon baby Ruth card I pulled earlier. Look! The Babe is signing a ball! That thing is going to go for millions!

Outside of the First Pitch insert set, this is the only one that I can see as collectible. Good idea and OK execution. Still not enough for me to collect it though.

Last featured card out of the rack packs. I like this Puig card a lot better than most of his other base cards. You have to show Puig running on the bases. It's where he causes everyone to flip out. It's fun.

All right, that was a bunch of good clean Valentiney pack-busting fun. Let's see what's in the blaster:

There is a lot more pointing on modern day baseball cards.

Full disclosure: My group break package from Nachos Grande, in which I selected the 2015 Dodgers, arrived today, too. So by the time everything was open, I was swimming in base Dodgers. As many Carl Crawfords as I wanted. But at the point of opening this blaster, the card still new. And it contained the special thrill that is reserved for new Dodgers.

I pulled a Suzy card! There are three Dodger Stadium cards in the First-Pitch set, and while "The Dude" is of much more interest, I wanted a Suzy very much.

Because coupled with the ones I received in the group break ...

I can now send one to Sooz of A Cardboard Problem so she can sign one!

This 2015 collecting year is just the best.

These were back-to-back. There's no danger of Topps turning off Yankees fans.

Ugh. This reminds me that I am overdue to send a package to It's Like Having My Own Card Shop. I am on Diamondbacks overload and that should never happen.

This is similar to the Clayton Kershaw card that I like a lot. Very cool. Looks like a night card, too.

I also like this card quite a bit. You don't see this kind of a shot often on a baseball card. It means Anthony Rendon will always have a memorable card.

I did a little pitching when I was a youngster. I can't imagine flipping my glove like that in the middle of my wind-up. Why do they do that?

A very sad card under the circumstances. But I'm glad his memory will continue in cards.

Who is the guy behind the Babe? James Polk? How long ago did this Ruth guy play anyway?

Dodger-jo! Repetitive photo-jo! Cool early Piazza mustache-jo!

No. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. No.

I think I have to take back that thing I said about Anthony Rendon's card. But I still like that one better.

That's my commemorative medallion. I'll bet Baseball Dad is pretty happy he surfaced now. In his stack it goes.

I'll admit this has been the most card-tastic Valentine's Day I've ever had.

After all of that, I probably now have to see how close I am to completing the first series. I hadn't planned on completing this set, but if I'm close I probably should. It's too nice not to.

I think the girls in the house and Topps are in cahoots.