Despite the strong start, the team played poorly in May and June and entered the All Star break at 47 – 48, still leading the NL West.

Despite the party's weaknesses, Sinclair gained a high profile as he sought to recall the Midlothian Campaign and once more revitalise the Liberals as the party of a strong foreign policy.

Despite a strong lineup anchored by the potent Lajoie and Shoeless Joe Jackson, poor pitching kept the team below third place for most of the next decade.

Despite the potential for a financially strong owner, Stouffer had some non-baseball related financial setbacks and, consequently, the team was cash-poor.

Despite the comparative obscurity of the kingdom, there were strong connections between Essex and the Kentish kingdom across the river Thames which led to the marriage of King Sledd to Ricula, sister of the king, Aethelbert of Kent.

Despite strong government measures, tension continued to grow, and Carías was ultimately forced to release some prisoners.

Despite the downturn, Hong Kong ’ s economic strengths, including a sound banking system, virtually no public debt, a strong legal system, ample foreign exchange reserves, rigorous anti-corruption measures and close ties with the mainland China, enable it to quickly respond to changing circumstances.

Despite his aping of Fascism, and the strong economic ties with resurgent Nazi Germany, Metaxas followed a policy of neutrality, given Greece's traditionally strong ties to Britain, reinforced by King George II's personal anglophilia.

Despite this, the strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable skepticism and debates about the content, nature and justifications of human rights to this day.

Despite the formal disapproval of religious authority, the segregation of women in Muslim societies and the strong emphasis on male virility leads adolescent males and unmarried young men to seek sexual outlets with boys younger than themselves — in one study in Morocco, with boys in the age-range 7 to 13.

Despite strong economic and cultural ties with Thailand, parts of the border shared by the two countries are indefinite.

Despite coup attempts in 1980, 1983, and 1988, Gayoom's popularity remained strong, allowing him to win three more presidential terms.

Despite achieving independence in 1956, Morocco still has a strong relationship with its former colonizers.

Despite a strong push in the middle of the 2007 season, winning five straight games, the Vikings lost their final two games to finish the season at 8 – 8, missing the playoffs.

Despite its strong Australian showing, and having an American producer ( Peter McIan ), Business as Usual was twice rejected by Columbia's parent company in the United States.

Despite a strong Presbyterian presence on its campus, Occidental cut ties to the church in 1910.

Despite its criticisms, though, realism has strong defenders.

Despite numerous requests by Abdullah bin Jassim — for strong military support, for weapons, and even for a loan — the British were reluctant to become involved in inland affairs and kept him at arm's length.

Despite not selling as well as its predecessor, the album boasted several strong singles, including " Run's House ", " Beats to the Rhyme ", and " Mary Mary.

Despite his pragmatic acceptance of the new power balance in the Pacific after World War II and his strong support for the American alliance, he publicly professed continued admiration for links with Britain, exemplified by his admiration for Queen Elizabeth II, and famously described himself as " British to the bootstraps ".

Despite the global financial crisis, the South Korean economy, helped by timely stimulus measures and strong domestic consumption of products that compensated for a drop in exports, was able to avoid a recession unlike most industrialized economies, posting positive economic growth for two consecutive years of the crisis.

Despite these expansions, some still felt copyright was not a strong enough regime.

Despite the work of the 1400 strong Iraq Survey Group in post-war Iraq, no evidence of actual WMD capability has so far been uncovered ; according to its final report in September 2004.

Despite the lack of formal secondary and tertiary level education, Nobel gained proficiency in six languages: Swedish, French, Russian, English, German and Italian.

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 some insignificant resistance, especially at Durrës, Italy invaded Albania on 7 April 1939 and took control of the country, with the Italian Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini proclaiming Italy's figurehead King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy as King of Albania.

Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with fellow Italian Leonardo da Vinci.

Despite the political campaigns launched in order to put Sardinian on an equal footing with Italian, and any emotive value linked to Sardinian identity, the sociolinguistic situation in Sardinia due to several reasons, mainly political and socioeconomic ( the gradual depopulation of the island's interior and rural exodus towards more urbanized and industrialized areas, the forced use of Italian presented as a prerequisite to get jobs and as one of the keys to social advancement, the barriers to communication between the dialectal varieties etc.

Despite remaining a minor party in Italian Parliament for fifty years, its leader Giuseppe Saragat became President of Italy in 1964.

Despite assimilating Italian techniques and Reformation theology, Holbein's art in many ways extended the Gothic tradition.

Despite the common interpretation, the location was not midway between the national seats of DC and of the Italian Communist Party ( PCI ) in Rome ( in this case to symbolize the end of the Historic Compromise, the alliance between DC and PCI sought by Moro ), but towards the Tiber River, near the Ghetto.

Despite protests from French and Italian composers, by the end of the first season Habeneck and the orchestra had also performed the Fifth Symphony, the Third Piano Concerto, the Violin Concerto as well as other works.

Despite the fact that the traditionally Catholic powers did not come to the Pope's aid, the papacy rejected any substantial accommodation with the Italian Kingdom, especially any proposal which required the Pope to become an Italian subject.

Despite the incursion of troops into Italy on behalf of the reactionary forces, Louis Bonaparte remained attached to ideal of Italian nationalism which he had embraced in his youth.

Despite the recent downturn in success, the club is an associated member and one of eight Italian clubs that are part of the European Club Association, a representative collection of Europe's most elite clubs, formed after the dissolution of the G-14.

Despite serious initial problems with the Austrian censors who had control over northern Italian theatres at the time, the opera had a triumphant premiere and is considered by many to be the first of the operatic masterpieces of Verdi's middle-to-late career.

Despite a rather disastrous production in Bergamo shortly after its initial run at La Fenice, the opera soon entered the repertory of Italian theatres.

Despite being very similar to standard Italian, Swiss Italian presents some differences to the Italian spoken in Italy due to the presence of French and German from which it assimilates words.

Despite the anti-Italian feeling during the war Prima continued to record Italian songs, the most famous " Angelina ", named after his mother.

Despite this, by the late-1970s and early-1980s, economic crises and political instability meant that there was a significant slump in the Italian tourist industry, as destinations in the Far East or South America rose in popularity.

Despite the form's Spanish roots ( confirmed by references in Spanish literature of the period ), the first written examples of passacaglias are found in an Italian source dated 1606.