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 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 some claims that shotgun sequencing was in some ways less accurate than the clone-by-clone method chosen by the Human Genome Project, the technique became widely accepted by the scientific community and is still the de facto standard used today.

Despite this, a museum exhibit opened in his honor, in which its owner claims it to be the country's smallest Presidential Library.

Despite his imperial claims, Frederick's rule was a major turning point towards the disintegration of a central rule in the Empire.

Despite the abolition of the German monarchy in 1918, the House of Hohenzollern never relinquished their claims to the thrones of Prussia and the German Empire.

Despite these claims he nominated people active under Nazi Germany to top ministerial positions, including Hans Globke, Director of the Federal Chancellory of West Germany between 1953 and 1963 and one of the closest aides to Chancellor Konrad Adenauer.

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

Despite estimates of some 100 million AK-47 assault rifles circulating, General Kalashnikov claims he has not profited and that he only receives a state pension.

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 claims of many classical theorists and sociologists immediately after World War II, many contemporary theorists have critiqued secularisation thesis, arguing that religion has continued to play a vital role in the lives of individuals worldwide.

Despite ideological differences and holding territorial claims on the Soviet Union, Adolf Hitler admired Stalin and his politics and believed that Stalin was in effect transforming Soviet Bolshevism into a form of Nazism.

Despite marketing claims and popular misconceptions, the Florida resort is not located within Orlando city limits and is actually located about southwest of downtown Orlando within southwestern Orange County, with the remainder in adjacent Osceola County.

Despite claims that boar bristles have been used in the manufacture of premium dart boards for use with steel-tipped darts, these boards are, in fact, made of other materials and fibres — the finest ones from sisal rope.

Despite Homer's fame, Castellaneta claims he is rarely recognized in public, " except, maybe, by a die-hard fan.

Despite the repeated French claims, the French government let the matter subside.

Despite popular claims that LeMay advanced the notion of preventive nuclear war, the historical record indicates LeMay actually advocated justified preemptive nuclear war.

Despite Flynn's claims, the evidence indicates that he was not descended from any of the Bounty mutineers.

Despite the fact that Cyprus and Jerusalem did not bar succession in female line, Philip however took those claims and used those titles as well.

Despite the band's claims that their fall tour would be celebrating the 20th anniversary of Core, this did not happen.

Despite the exclusively female, aristocratic connections of her winter festival at Rome and her high status as a protecting deity of the Roman state, elite dedications to Bona Dea are far outnumbered by the personal dedications of the Roman plebs, particularly the ingenui ; the greatest number of all are from freedmen and slaves ; and an estimated one-third of all dedications are from men, one of whom, a provincial Greek, claims to be a priest of her cult.

Despite voluminous reader mail pointing to the numerous errors in the news story, the Observer never issued a full retraction of its claims, only going so far as to clarify that Johan Helsingius had " consistently denied " the claims of child pornography distribution.

Despite the vast number of Green Lanterns, certain sectors of space apparently do not recognize the authority of the Corps, as alien superhero Icon claims that his status as a citizen of the interstellar civilization known as the Cooperative makes him immune to prosecution from Guardians or their agents.

Despite these claims, no pheromonal substance has ever been demonstrated to directly influence human behavior in a peer reviewed study.

" Despite the well-known examples of pejorative exonymic characters ( such as the " dog radical " in Di ), he claims there is no hidden racial bias in the meanings of the characters used to describe these different peoples, but rather the differences were " in occupation or in custom, not in race or origin.