Hope Springs Eternal

They say hope spring eternal...whoever it was that first said this popular phrase must have been observing a group of Cubs fans.

After all, if hope did not spring as such, how could this fan base cope with life?

While it has certainly gotten easier to have hope for this franchise now that the young'ins are emerging from the farm and Joe Maddon is captaining the ship, it sure seems like my chase for this lasted eternally as well.

But, a quick, boredom-induced pitstop in my LCS finally ended this search.

It wasn't really this specific card that eluded me, rather any sort of card of Jack Russell Spring and his immaculate crew cut.

As you know by now, I collect one card of each man who has ever suited up for the Cubs in their franchise history, even if they only played 1/3 of an inning.  This original Angel managed to play 7 games for the Northsiders in 1964 and see action for St. Louis and Cleveland that same year as well.

Now, the reliever might not have been with the franchise long, but he'll always be a part of Cubbie lore.  Why's that, you ask?  Well, he was traded to the Cardinals with some guy named Brock - I wonder what ever became of that guy?

Having played in the majors for parts of 8 years, Jack found his way into four sets of Topps cards and in only one of those was he a high-number; should be easy to track down one of these cards right?  Well, I started this collection in 2004, so....

Another 1960's base card that eluded me was this guy; however, he only appeared in 36 games over 3 years and made no other card set.  Thus, his being elusive is a little more understandable to me.

Jimmy got a 2-game cameo with Chicago in 1957 at the tender young age of 17 before spending the next two seasons in the minors.

Like Spring, he was also involved in a trade for a Hall of Famer, this time coming into town.  Along with Al Dark and John Buzhardt, Jim brought a declining Richie Ashburn to Wrigley Field.

In Phillie, Woods got himself two more cups of Joe, but saw no further action. His big league career was over at just 21.

 The more notable pieces of the trades noted above

So, as a Cubs fan, hope does indeed spring eternal in my Cubs fan existence.  However, some times searches seem to spring eternal in my baseball card-chasing life as well.

I guess that's fitting.

Anybody else have a similar issue - trying to find yourself a card that shouldn't be so difficult to acquire, but it eludes you in a Moby Dick-esque manner?

But, we have high hopes anyway, right?

Waves and Waves

On Friday, the city of Chicago was gifted with the presence of the one and only Kris Bryant.  While his power stroke hasn't completely followed as of yet, he's off to a pretty swell start - 6 for 14 with 4 walks.

Now, that excitement would have been enough to tide us Cubs fans over for a little while, injuries necessitated today's recall of another potential franchise savior:

Due to the injury to Tommy La Stella and the anemic offense of Jonathan Herrera, Addy Russell will now take the starting job at second base - a bit earlier than expected (only 13 career games at AAA).  Woohoo!!!

*As I type, Russell has gone 0-3 with 3 K's.  I have faith that his Barry Larkin-like tools will eventually emerge; rookies will struggle*

I actually pulled this card from an impulse driven purchase of a pack of Bowman Chrome before the Cubs acquired him from the A's last summer; I love when that happens!  Speaking of that trade, it's pretty clear that TheoJed absolutely fleeced Mr. Moneyball.  Nice to be on the winning side for once.

The shortstop may very well slot back into shortstop at some point, but second base has been a black hole so far this year.  Hopefully, when everyone is back and healthy, the Cubs can use their glut of high-upside middle infielders to their advantage.

Speaking of which, a high-upside middle infielder had to be sent back to AAA to make room on the roster:

Arismendy had a walk-off single against the Reds on April 13th, but he's been just 2-26 in total.  His ceiling appears to be as a Ben Zobrist-type super utility man, but he's going to need some regular at-bats to jump-start his bat.

So, off to Iowa he goes; hopefully, it proves to be a short stay.

In addition, the Cubs have added one other new face to the roster since my last post.  However, this roster move was nowhere near as exciting.  In fact, it wasn't exciting at all.

You all know Ricky Bobby, the man with two first names.  Well, meet the man with the backwards names.

It looks as though Germen's name is listed the same way it would be on a substitute teacher's class roster; but that is in fact the correct order of his moniker.

He was claimed off of waivers by the Cubs over the winter and was later snuck through them just before spring training.  That's Wrigley Roster Jenga, right there.

The fireballer was called up due to a taxed Cubs' bullpen, a result of the team being in so many close games.  Gosh, that's nice to type after the past few seasons worth of embarrassment.

Germen's likely a short-term replacement, until Neil Ramirez or Justin Grimm are ready to return.  But, if he can cut down on base-runners allowed, he could make a case to stick around.

 Get better soon guys!

No matter, Gonzalez is far from a top prospect and the Cubs will soon have a hard time finding space for those guys alone.  With Jorge Soler, Bryant and now Russell donning blue pinstripes, who do we Chicagoans focus our anticipation on now?

I hereby declare that C.J. Edwards watch has officially begun!  or maybe Kyle Schwarber?  then again, it could be Albert Almora...

Waves and waves of talent are washing ashore on the Northside.

The Rize of Kris Bryant...

...has finally ascended to the Majors!

It's probably a good thing that the bleachers at Wrigley are empty due to the construction; the imminent threat of bombs make them quite unsafe!

But seriously, the hype surrounding this kid is insane and no prospect has elicited so much hope throughout the duration of my fan-dom.  Hopefully, he lives up to at least some of these quite lofty expectations.

In the meantime, I should probably celebrate this Chicago holiday by acquiring a licensed card of the guy; it almost seems disrespectful that this is the only Bryant that I have!

The Mad Russian & Stringer

To me, that sounds like it could be the title to a bad buddy cup TV show from the 70's or a low budget stoner comedy from the late 90's.

However, it's much better than that.

In fact, it is a pair of ultra-vintage baseball cards of two long-time teammates that I was able to swipe on the cheap from Ebay!

I told you it was ultra-vintage; that's a WWII era strip card right there!

This is a card I've been monitoring for many moons because it is the only card of "The Mad Russian" that depicts him on the Cubs from his playing days.  Even in rough shape, I've seen this beauty usually go for around $15, $30-40 if it's in good shape; I paid $7.

The set was produced by M.P. & Co.,  a NYC novelty and carnival supply firm, in 1943 and was sold in strips of three at local candy shops.  It's one of the very few baseball card sets produced during the war.

Meanwhile, the artwork is fairly crude, but I find it to be endearing at the same time.  After all, this is when cards were supposed to appeal to kids and what kids don't love cartoons?

Between the wear on the edges and the back being off-center, it finally fell into my lap for a reasonable price.

Fittingly, Lou was quite the cartoon during his time with the Cubs.  Already a mediocre defender (I don't know why the back states otherwise), he was known to be quite fearful of the ivy because he thought it was of the poison variety.  This really limited his fielding abilities.

When the trainer took a bunch of the leaves and rubbed them all over himself to demonstrate their safety, Lou just smiled and asked if they were good for smoking.

He was also known to end up in piano bars during the wee hours, where he would lay on top the instrument and serenade the audience.

Oh boy.

On the diamond, the outfielder swatted 41 homers in the PCL in 1940, leading to a call to Chicago.

Unfortunately, his power never materialized on the grand stage - hitting just 15 taters total from 1941-1945.  He hung on for a few more games in Philly after the boys came home in '46 before going back to the PCL.

Moving on, let's take a look at Lou's teammate - another Lou:

This Lou Stringer card from the 1950 edition of Bowman is a little bit more beat up.  It looks like it might have been stapled to something at some point and there is some heavy creasing going on.

But, when I can add a card as old as this from a set as iconic as this for less than I'd spend at McDonald's, I can live with that.

Stringer came up with the Cubs at the same time as Novikoff and was immediately installed as their starting second baseman, a position which he held through the next season before going to war.  He was a light-hitting sort (career .242 average) as you'd expect from a MI of the era, but he also wasn't a great fielder 34 and 29 errors in 1941-42 respectively).

He came back to the Cubs after the war, but found his spot taken by Don Johnson.  Lou was relegated to the bench and then to the minors.  Eventually, he found his way back up to Boston by 1948, where he held a utility role through the 1950 season.

So, we're looking at Mr. Stringer's sunset card here.

Novikoff & Stringer as teammates on the Los Angeles Angels, PCL affiliate of the Cubs

Photo courtesy of the Bilko Athletic Club

These kind of finds are my absolute favorite.  Cards as old as these not only attract my interest as a baseball fan, but they also pique my curiosities as a history buff and antique hoarder.

It tickles me know that I, in 2015, have cards that someone of my grandfather's generation could have had in a rubber-banded stack in his pocket as a kid playing sandlot ball.  The fact that they're a little beat up really only adds to that mystique.

Thus, I will continue to scour the internet for cheap ultra-vintage to add to my CATRC and hopefully I can continue to get lucky, as I did in these cases.

Who doesn't love this sort of stuff?

I'm Looking Through You

Like all of us, I make a lot of impulse purchases on baseball cards.

Luckily for my wallet, my sanity and my girlfriend with whom I share a bank account, these impulses are usually limited to a single pack of cards from our weekly grocery shopping trip.  I don't think I've ever bought even so much as one box of cards that wasn't from at least ten years ago.

Now, the odds are obviously against you pulling anything super-special in this situation; maybe a parallel or a short-print here or there, but usually just base cards.  That's fine with me, as I'm not collecting for hits, after all.

But, every now and then, something like this falls out:

An acetate parallel of the Oscar Taveras, the blossoming star who was taken from this world far too soon.  I buy a pack of Update hoping for the regular ol' base card of the Cubs backup catcher or extra outfielder (John Baker, Ryan Kalish) and I end up with this instead.

Ok - I can't really be mad about that.  

Like all of the acetates, this beauty is numbered out of 10.  Also, I have to say that after everything that happened this offseason, the picture that Topps selected here seems all too fitting; almost prescient, in fact.

Here's a somewhat clearer view of the pic:

I may be a Cubs fan, but I'm not heartless.  Like with the losses of Darryl Kile and Josh Hancock, I was very much taken aback and saddened when I read the news.  He should have had the opportunity to inflict great damage on the Cubs, like all Cards seem to do.

But, this card doesn't really belong in my collection and I feel like it should go to someone who can truly appreciate it.  Is anyone interested in working up a trade?

In the meantime, I'll just be here, rocking out to my favorite tune off of Rubber Soul:

I'll Take Potpourri for 100, Alex

When I sort of accidentally put my blog into hibernation this past winter, I did not accompany it in deep sleep.  Unfortunately, life went on in full-force; I mean, a nice, long nap through a Chicago winter sounds absolutely heavenly.

My card collecting habits didn't really take a break either.  Even though I had no outlet to show them off on, I kept bringing in new cardboard rectangles into my home.

Since today is a slow Tuesday, I've decided that today is the today that I clear these photos off of my to-do list.  I hope you enjoy this theme-less, random post!

We'll start with a few new additions to my CATRC:

Mr. McCormick here was a star on the mound in the early days of the NL.  In fact, these days were so long ago that he was actually a star in the pitcher's box - they didn't even have mounds yet!

He spent two years in Chicago as a member of Anson's dynastic White Stockings in 1885-86, going 21-4 and 31-11 to lead them to back-to-back pennants.  He was jettisoned to Pittsburgh in owner Albert Spalding's great purge of rabble-rousers, which lead to a bleak period that lasted until the era of Tinker to Evers to Chance.

This card comes from the 2014 edition of Upper Deck's Goodwin Champions, an excellent source for off the beaten path sort of card subjects.  Additionally, this is actually the mini-canvas parallel, making it look and feel kind of like a painting.  It's cool; but, I do wish it was full-size.

I went ahead and called this an official Cubs card in my records.  Even though no team affiliation is listed and the jersey has been erased of any indication, the original photo - which was used in an original Goodwin & Co. set - gives it away:

That sure looks like "Chicago" stitched across his chest to me.  Upper Deck may not have a license, but I sure do have some sleuthing skills...

...or a basic understanding of Google search.

The other new addition to my CATRC was a little more recent:

From last year in fact.  Chris was invited to spring training last year and then kept in Iowa as injury insurance for the middle infield.

Lo and behold, he got his opportunity late in the season when Starlin Castro hurt his hammy and ended up playing all over the infield.

He must have impressed Cubs brass, despite his .239 batting average, because they brought him back on another minor league deal and he is again biding his time in Iowa.

But, he no longer has to bide his time waiting to get into my CATRC!

The third and final new guy I was able to add to my binder was:

Newman! A dreaded high-number.

But, seeing as the card is a little rough around the edges (literally) and creased in the bottom right corner, the proprietor of my LCS took pity on me and let me have it for a buck.

Score!

As for the player himself, he saw 30 games of action in his rookie season of 1971, posting a decent 3.52 ERA in 38.1 innings out of the bullpen, which earned him a spot in the legendary 1972 checklist.

However, by the time the cards hit the shelves, he had already been traded to Milwaukee for Floyd Weaver and a minor-leaguer (neither of which ever played for the big club) where his career fizzled out the next year.

Some other fun pick-ups that weren't new players for my collection included:

A couple of new Baez pieces that I found the old-fashioned way.

His stock may have dropped after a historically strike-out filled debut stint last season and a demotion back to the minors to start this season, but I still have some faith in this guy.  After all, he has struggled initially after every promotion before making the proper adjustments.

But then, I might just be blinded by the shininess of that "Future of the Franchise" insert found in last year's edition of Bowman.

Speaking of shiny, here are a couple of other flashy cards that caught my attention.

I've always had a thing for the Spring Fever promotion cards, even though I'm really not sure how they are supposed to be obtained - I'm content finding them on the secondhand market.  Even if they depict a bust like Vitters.

That Shark refractor was sitting in a discount bin in my LCS shortly after he was traded to Oakland and I wasn't about to let that opportunity go to waste!

Oh hey, a couple of more parallels - these from last years edition of Update.  The Kalish was my first card of him as a Cub (and likely last) and I have to say, the gold looks really nice when used in conjunction with the Cubs' colors.

I was kind of surprised to find out that Jerome was even still in the league, let alone that he was having some success with the Phillies.  But, Update couldn't keep up with how often he bounced around last year and kept him on the Rangers.

The red parallels also work really well with the Rangers' color scheme, but it's the pink glove that really makes this card.  I don't remember him doing this when he was a Cub way back in 2005-06, but apparently he now uses it in every game to support breast cancer research, a disease which took his mother.

Kudos to you Mr. Williams; I think we can all get behind that message.

I think that about does it for the miscellaneous madness.

We laughed, we cried, but we made it through this post without any sort of structure!

I'll close this edition of Wrigley Roster Jenga with one of the most random SNL sketches of all-time, from which this post takes it's name:

Factory Sealed - Factory Fresh

The 2015 edition of the factory team sets have hit the shelves!

This is a release that always grabs my attention, even if it is often heavily made up of re-hashings of the Series One cards without foil.  But, there's more to it.

First, it includes a few preview cards that let us know what we should expect in Series Two.

Second, it usually features the first (or very nearly so) cards of off-season acquisitions in their new threads; albeit, with heavy photoshopping.  Seeing as my ultimate goal is to have a Cubs card of every player who has been on the team, I went out a got myself a set.

Do I feel guilty about breaking it up?  Maybe a little, but there are bigger problems in the world.

This year's editions of Heritage and Spring Fever actually beat out the factory set to a few of the new guys; but, yesterday's big hero still needed some attention:

The photoshopper left the piping on the middle of what used to be an Astros uniform. This makes it look like he's wearing a mish mash of the Cubs' new-ish alt road jersey that people seem to loathe and the regular one.

But, I'm over that.  Dexter and his memorabilia can do no wrong with me for now, thanks to this epic moment:

Yea, crushing a home run to give the Cubs the lead when they were down to their last strike is going to earn you some brownie points.  Bonus points for knocking it out of the park on LaTroy Hawkins - long overdue karma for the saves he blew down the stretch for us back in 2004.

But, back to the cards:

Here we have a couple of the other big-name additions from this offseason.  While, I already was able to pick up a copy of Lester's card from the Spring Fever promotion, this card of Miggy is the first of him as a Cub in my collection.  Both of these guys made it into Heritage in Cubbie blue too.

On the left, we have another photoshopping faux pas.  While the uniform design was actually done pretty much perfectly, there was still a glaring error.  Wrigley Wax discussed this very problem earlier today, so I'll let him explain it to you.

I really like that Topps chose to use a picture of Jon from his introductory press conference.  It was an authentic moment that actually happened in real life, not the altered history presented to us on the previous two cards.  Plus, it's a unique snapshot from an event that doesn't often get documented on cardboard.

Jason here was the last of the new guys to show up in the set.  However, since he was also a new guy last year, before his trade to the Athletics, all Topps had to do was pull up a photograph from before July 31st.

Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

As for the rest of the cards that were not included in Series One and serve as a preview of what's to come in Series Two:

Only Hendricks was new to my CATRC, but the rest of these guys are pretty neat too.

As far as photography goes, the pic used on the Coghlan card is beautiful - what's better than seeing a web-gem develop before your very eyes in front of a lush, ivy background?  Plus, as a child of the 90's, I have to show some love for the "Cuba" throwback jersey being sported by Wada.

Are we really to the point where we can call the 90's throwback?  Yikes.

As far as star-power goes, Arrieta is the man and Rondon is the best (and only) time a Rule 5 pick has worked out for the Cubs in my lifetime.  He's also the most lock-down closer of my lifetime; after having to sit through heart-attack inducing ninth inning's from Marmol, Hawkins, Borowski, Beck, etc. etc., his quick and efficient frames are greatly appreciated!

That's it for the new stuff though, the rest of the cards from the factory were already found in Series One:

Most of these were obvious selections.  Most of them

Topps doesn't seem to have caught on to the fact the Lake has shaped up to be nothing more than a spare part - I'm surprised he made the first series.  I'm less caught off guard by the inclusion of the Miner Forty-Niner lost in time, otherwise known as Brian Schlitter.  After all, he saw a lot of action in 2014 and was due some recognition.

Also part of the set was my favorite piece from Series One, Arismendy Alcantara; but, I must have been distracted by it's awesomeness because I forgot to include him.

All in all, this was a pretty nice offering from Topps.  There was plenty of new stuff to be found and for a reasonable price too; it was five bucks well spent!

However, I'm curious as to how these sets break down for other teams.  Do some teams have less or even more new material than others in these sets?  Even more hack-job photoshopping monstrosities? Perhaps some photo variations?  Hopefully some more of these sets pop in reviews across the blogosphere!

Happy (Belated) National Sibling Day!

Yesterday, social media erupted in celebration of something called National Sibling Day.  Honestly, I had no idea that this was a thing.

It's mostly a regional thing; but in today's society tech-driven society, that doesn't mean much of anything anymore.

Even though everyone and their brother (pun!) seemed to post about it on Facebook and such, I still was late to the party and didn't do anything for it.  My siblings know that I love them and they don't need a tweet to know that.

But, then I thought that it could make a nice jumping off for a blog post - but that light bulb didn't light up until this morning.  I'm like the Absent Minded Professor.

Anyway, there have been over 350 sets of brothers to play in the Major Leagues.  Unfortunately, Chicago only got one of the Niekros, Deans, or the Molinas; but, by my count, 11 sets have both spent time on the Cubbies.

 For instance, the dynamic duo of failed prospects.

Well, it might be unfair to say that Corey failed; rather, he just did not live up to pretty unfair expectations from a barren farm system.

The fact that Eric's MLB career was only a few seasons long and never lead to a regular gig is what allowed me to pick up this relic for less than a buck.  I also was gifted a game-used, autographed bat that was handled by the younger Patterson.  Unfortunately, that bat is tucked in storage because I have yet to find room to display it in my humble abode.

These two brothers just missed being teammates - with Corey being traded to Baltimore after the 2006 season and Eric getting his first call-up that summer.  That's too bad, that would have been pretty cool to see.

However, these two were both brothers in the dugout and in the family tree.

"Big Daddy" had a long, All Star career in the Big Leagues; on the other hand, "the Walrus" only spent five mediocre years in the Majors as a reliever (four with the Cubs).

But, both of these cards from a couple of my favorite sets of all-time, they might have the coolest sibling nicknames in baseball history and Paul's got some great Ricky Vaughn glasses there - so they've got all that going for them.

I've spotlighted this set of brothers before and the whole Hairston family, in general, is interwoven into the fabric of Chicago baseball history as well.

The lasting memory I have of Jerry from his two-year stint in Chicago, is when I went to the old ballyard and listened to the extremely inebriated lady behind me (in the third or so inning, at that) try to pronounce every player's last name with a french accent.  Jacque Jones worked; Jerry Hairston did not flow quite as smoothly.

Well, that experience and the fact that he (along with Mike Fontenot) was the man traded for Sammy Sosa.  Say what you will about Sammy's legacy, but as a kid in the late 90s/early 00s, it was a sad end to an era to this fan.


Scott was barely here, so the only lasting memory I have of him was his half-season in Chicago is his Mendoza-shaming batting average of .172 - ick!

Going back much further in time, I obviously have no memories of these two bros, although my grandfather might have seen them play.

This pitcher/catcher duo had the joy of playing for the Cardinals during one of their runs of dominance in the 30's and 40's.  It must have been a hoot to have a brother battery on the team; I'm sure it felt like they were kids back on the sandlot.

Both players eventually found their way to the Cubs, at different times, as their careers dwindled to an end, as many fading stars often did in the franchise's Wrigley-owned days.

Interestingly, though Mort is listed as having played for the Cubs by both the MLB and Baseball Reference, he is listed as a infielder having played 0.0 innings.  I guess he was announced as part of a double-switch or something and was swapped out before actually taking the field.  Bizarre.

We're going even further back in time for this pair.  Obviously, these are both reprints because if they weren't, I would have to be reprinting Benjamin's to afford these tobacco cards.

Hell, Fred Pfeffer is shown wearing a Louisville uniform - that team didn't even survive into the 20th century for cryin' out loud!

Fred was the starting second baseman for Cap Anson's Chicago White Stockings and their dynasty of the 1880's until they were slowly broken up due to their hard-partying ways.  This 1895 Mayo Cut Plug piece lists Fred as having retired as a member of the Colonels, but he actually came back to Chicago for two more seasons to wrap up his career.

"Big Jeff" was actually the little brother in this relationship and his career was much more brief.  Alternating time with the Boston Beaneaters and the Cubs, the pitcher never really found a groove at the top level.

Now, there are a few other sets of brothers in Cubs history, but I only have one of a few of them:

This well-loved 1954 Topps Sauer was the oldest card in my collection for many years.  That is baseball card beauty right there!

Obviously, the "Mayor of Wrigley Field" was the much more successful brother; but, Ed saw some time in the outfield for both the Braves and the Cardinals, in addition to his time as the Deputy Mayor of Wrigley.

It's going to be a challenge to obtain Ed's card because I am only aware on one - and it's a Puerto Rican oddball that is currently sitting well out of my price range.  Some day...

Jim and Wayne's baseball careers were both quite brief in the mid-70's, but there was one key difference - Jim was issued a couple of baseball cards and Wayne was not.

At least, I think that's Jim under there; it's kinda hard to tell since Topps decided that facial recognition wasn't necessary when selecting pictures.

The "card" you see of Wayne on the right was created with the Rookies card-generator app that I've spotlighted in the past.  I'd like to get this printed when I have some extra coin; but, for now it resides in my virtual photo album.

Also, after hours of exhausting research, that seems to be the only photo I can locate of good ol' #22.  By exhausting research, I actually mean a cursory Google search.  *Shrug*

Solly Drake and his brother Sammy both spent some time on the Cubs roster in the 50's and 60's.  In fact, though their careers only lasted two or three years each, these two were the first set of brothers to both play in the Major Leagues.  You don't hear that bit of trivia very often.

Now of the brother sets that remain uncompleted in my collection, this is the only one that will be fairly easy to complete.

Sammy Drake has a couple of cards on the market, including this 1962 Topps card - it's not even a high number.  So, though I haven't come across it yet, it shouldn't be nearly as hard to track down as a foreign oddball nor should I have to create my own.

The only issue for me will be is if I should label it as an official Cubs card:  it lists him as a Met, but obviously depicts him in a hat-less Cubs getup.  I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get to it. #FirstWorldProblems.

The last two sets of brothers in Cubs history, Larry & Mike Corcoran and Jiggs & Tom Parrott, go back to when the Reconstruction era and none of them are represented in my collection yet, so I'll skip on spotlighting them for now.  Sorry guys!

 

Jiggs                                   Tom

                                                      Larry                                  Mike

                         
So there you have it - a complete (but late) study into all of the literal brothers who have played for the Chicago National League franchise. I'm actually kind of surprised that there haven't been more, for as long as this dinosaur of a club has been around.

This was so much more entertaining and fulfilling than Instagramming an old picture of me and my actual siblings.  I mean, I'd actually have to get an Instagram to do that.

But in all seriousness, if you have any siblings, make sure you show them some love every now and then.  After all, you just never know what's going to happen in life.

Happy (belated) National Sibling Day to all and to all a good night!