Despite the early predictions for success, the Astros had a mediocre 44 – 44 record at the All-Star break.

Despite his own mediocre academic record, he goes on to have an illustrious career as an inspiring educator at Brookfield.

Despite a mediocre on-field record, the Gold Miners represented a serious attempt to form a viable professional football organization.

1958 – 59: Despite a mediocre 35 – 37 record the Nationals would make the playoffs again by finishing in 3rd place.

Despite Birmingham's mediocre 2004 – 05 season, Heskey was named as the club's Player's Player of the Season, Fan's Player of the Season, finished as top goalscorer with 11 goals and won most Man of the match awards.

Despite having a mediocre season until August, Lowe was exceptional in September 2010, with a 5 – 0 record, a 1. 77 ERA, 29 strikeouts while walking only three batters, which helped the Braves secure a playoff berth as the NL Wild Card, being one game ahead of the second place Padres at the end of the regular season.

Despite its mediocre box-office performance, a made-for-TV sequel, Dungeons & Dragons: Wrath of the Dragon God was released in 2005.

Despite the success of Mortal Kombat 4, the franchise had begun to suffer from overexposure and mostly spawned failed and mediocre projects during this period.

Despite his selection by Gorbachev for the Defence Minister's position, William E. Odom, in his book ' The Collapse of the Soviet Military ,' repeats Alexander Yakovlev's description of Yazov as a ' mediocre officer ', ' fit to command a division but nothing higher '.

Despite this, George is dissatisfied with his professional life ; he is clearly the creative star of the salon, but is forced to play second fiddle to the " nickel-and-diming ," mediocre hairdresser who owns the place.

Despite this, another mediocre league start led Karageorgiou to be sacked as well, and replaced by former technical director Giorgos Kostikos.

Despite many mediocre seasons, support for the team has remained strong.

Despite her mediocre photographic credentials, during World War II Chapelle managed to become a war correspondent photojournalist for National Geographic, and with one of her first assignments, was posted with the Marines during the battle of Iwo Jima.

Despite Johnson's mediocre season, the Mets easily coasted to a division win but Johnson went 1-for-18 with six strikeouts in the 1988 NLCS.

Despite the hard nature of the work process, their low professional status, and their mediocre pay, locomotive firemen performed very dangerous jobs.

Despite his mediocre record and growing discontent among Irish fans, Faust was allowed to remain at Notre Dame for the entire duration of his five-year contract.

Despite a mediocre record in the league, Baumgart ' contact was extended another year until June 2010.

Despite several mediocre reviews, the novel was viewed positively by several critics.

Despite his enthusiasm, Barton-Wright seems to have been a mediocre promoter.

Despite the mediocre sales of the album in the US, " Nikita " and " Wrap Her Up " became Top 20 hits, the former reaching # 7 in the US and # 3 in the UK.

Despite the fact Philadelphia was a mediocre team, Taylor established himself and was named to the National League All-Star team that year.

Despite having a mediocre start to his Celtic career in the second half of the 2006 – 07 season, Hartley enjoyed a very good 2007 – 08 season.

Despite his good numbers in the minors, he was just a mediocre hitter in the Major Leagues with good gap power ( resulting in lots of doubles ) and above-average defense at first base.

Despite the large number of species in order Asterales, they do not compare in economic benefit for mankind to the Poales or to the Fabaceae.

Despite this, Babbage's work fell into historical obscurity and the Analytical Engine was unknown to builders of electro-mechanical and electronic computing machines in the 1930s and 1940s when they began their work, resulting in the need to re-invent many of the architectural innovations Babbage had proposed.

Despite this, Ajax managed to hide in the altar of an unnamed deity where the Greeks, fearing divine retribution should they kill him and destroy the altar, allowed him to live.

Amalric was pious and attended mass every day, although he also " is said to have absconded himself without restraint to the sins of the flesh and to have seduced married women …" Despite his piety he taxed the clergy, which they naturally opposed.

Despite their avowed claim to appeal to the entire state, in 2009 the Diamondbacks moved their Triple-A Pacific Coast League farm team, the Tucson Sidewinders, to Reno, where they are now known as the Aces.

Despite advances in the protection offered by ballistic armour against projectiles, as the name implies, modern ballistic body armour is much less impervious to stabbing weapons unless they are augmented with anti-knife / anti-stab armour ( usually a form of mail ).

Despite having no experience with women, their other signature traits are a shared obsession with sex, and their tendency to chuckle and giggle whenever they hear words or phrases that can even remotely be construed as sexual or scatological.

Despite these constraints especially those deputies that are elected directly normally try to keep close contact with their constituents and to help them with their problems, particularly when they are related to federal policies or agencies.

Despite this comparison, a fragment of a non-Christian parchment Codex of Demosthenes, De Falsa Legatione from Oxyrhynchus in Egypt demonstrates that the surviving evidence is insufficient to conclude whether Christians played a major, if not central, role in the development of early codices, or if they simply adopted the format to distinguish themselves from Jews.

Despite this, Chicago engaged St. Louis in a see-saw battle for first place into August, but the Cardinals played to a torrid 20 – 6 pace that month, designating their rivals to battle in the Wild Card race, from which they were eliminated in the season's final week.

Despite the club's poor record, several Rockies hitters gained notoriety for their exploits at the plate, assisted by the thin and dry air of Denver, which purportedly allows balls to carry farther than they would at sea-level ballparks.

Despite their confusing English dub names, they are indeed cyborgs.

Despite greater toleration, extreme sects were opposed by the upper classes as they were seen as a threat to social order and property rights.

Despite its rare use, Italian orthography allows the circumflex accent ( î ) too, in two cases: it can be found in old literary context ( roughly up to 19th century ) to signal a syncope ( fêro → fecero, they did ), or in modern Italian to signal the contraction of ″- ii ″ due to the plural ending-i whereas the root ends with another-i ; e. g., s. demonio, p. demonii → demonî ; in this case the circumflex also signals that the word intended is not demoni, plural of " demone " by shifting the accent ( demònî, " devils "; dèmoni, " demons ").

Despite success within the NFL, they could not survive in Portsmouth, then the NFL's smallest city.

Despite this, several individuals in modern times have claimed that they have rediscovered the methods in which the original Damascus steel was produced.

Despite their practice of blending with dominant groups in order to avoid persecution and because the Druze religion doesn't endorse separatist sentiments, urging the Druze to blend with the communities they reside in, nevertheless the Druze have had a history of brave resistance to occupying powers, and they have at times enjoyed more freedom than most other groups living in the Levant.

Despite Reitell's previous misgivings about their relationship they spent the rest of the day and night together.

Despite a booming growth in American periodicals around this time period, fueled in part by new technology, many did not last beyond a few issues and publishers often refused to pay their writers or paid them much later than they promised.

Despite the recognition and success they enjoyed in the States, they were still largely ignored in the United Kingdom until their sixth album, the platinum selling A New World Record, hit the top ten there in 1976.

Despite the revivalists ' various political views and different opinions regarding the nature of authentic folk music, they all shared an understanding of Americanism that grounded the nation's identity in cultural pluralism and political democracy " By the end of the 1930s they along with the musicians and others had turned American folk music into a social movement.

Despite Francis ' different religion, he felt that they were good people, much like Europeans, and could be converted.