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 strong Italian influence, Zog refused to completely give in to Italian pressure.

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 this and other hearsay evidence, there were no actual facts to go upon.

Despite the study of model plants and increasing use of DNA evidence, there is ongoing work and discussion among taxonomists about how best to classify plants into various taxa.

Despite Sihanouk's allegations, there is no evidence that this coup was planned by the United States Central Intelligence Agency.

Despite the difficult relations between the local Cubans and the new Europeans, some cooperation was in evidence.

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 rumors to the contrary, there is no scientific evidence linking cycling with testicular cancer.

Despite the increasing evidence of a military build-up on Cuba, no U-2 flights were made over Cuba from September 5 until October 14.

Despite this opinion among researchers, evidence has accumulated that supports the existence of complex biological effects of weaker non-thermal electromagnetic fields, ( including weak ELF magnetic fields, although the latter does not strictly qualify as EM radiation < ref >), and modulated RF and microwave fields.

Despite the deep erosion of the valleys, the surrounding uplands show little evidence of glaciation, suggesting that the ice was thin, or at least unable to cause much erosion at these higher altitudes.

Despite this, " there is ample evidence that the medieval clergy were the main practitioners of magic and therefore the owners, transcribers, and circulators of grimoires " while several grimoires were actually attributed to various Popes.

Despite numerous similarities in phrasing and factual errors, the court found the evidence inadequate and dismissed the case.

Despite these high-profile reports from Arkansas and Florida and sporadic reports elsewhere in the historic range of the species since the 1940s, there is no conclusive evidence for the continued existence of the Ivory-billed Woodpecker ; i. e., there are no unambiguous photographs, videos, specimens or DNA samples from feathers or feces of the Ivory-billed.

Despite some claims that the word kiosk originally came from the Swahili language, all evidence points to a Middle Persian origin.

Despite the clear evidence that all the ancient ruins in Maldives are Buddhist, Heyerdahl claimed that early " sun-worshiping seafarers ", called the " Redin ", first settled on the islands.

Despite the subjects ' own expectations of consensus, interpretations of the commandments showed wide ranges of variation, with little evidence of consensus.

Despite the great number of geometric microliths that have been found in Western Europe, few examples show any clear evidence of their use, and all the examples are from the Mesolithic or Neolithic periods.

Despite Strabo's conviction of a lie, the perimeter said to have been given by Pytheas is not evidence of it.

Despite Macdonald's claims that he was innocent, evidence came to light showing receipts of money from Allan to Macdonald and some of his political colleagues.

Despite the lack of observational evidence for proton decay, some grand unification theories, such as the Georgi – Glashow model, require it.

Despite these data and later evidence that proteolytically digested proteins yielded only oligopeptides, the idea that proteins were linear, unbranched polymers of amino acids was not accepted immediately.

Despite some valid criticisms of the early experiments, there has been no evidence of fraud.

Despite the proviso that the Court was for disputes " which cannot be satisfactorily settled by diplomacy ", the Court never required evidence that diplomatic discussions had been attempted before bringing the case.

Despite this association with the remains of a large carnivorous dinosaur, the vertebra shows no evidence that it was chewed on by the dinosaur.

Despite some similarities between these two causes, the creation science movement represented a shift from overtly religious to covertly religious objections to evolutionary theory — raising what it claimed to be scientific evidence in support of a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Despite rumours of devil worship and other dark arts being practised during the meetings, there is no evidence to prove this.