Despite the major changes made to the team in the offseason, the team wound up with its first winning season since 1997.

Despite making the race very close, in the 161st game of the season, the Dodgers snapped their five-game losing streak – and the Rockies ' five-game winning streak – to clinch the West title.

Despite this particular mission, in winning the Albigensians over by persuasion Dominic met limited success, " for though in his ten years of preaching a large number of converts were made, it has to be said that the results were not such as had been hoped for.

Despite the British economy then being in recession, he led the Conservatives to a fourth consecutive election victory, winning the most votes in British electoral history ( 14 million ) in the 1992 general election, albeit with a much reduced majority in the House of Commons.

Despite the good news off the field, and winning four out of five games to start the season, the Wizards just missed out on a playoff berth with a loss to the New York Red Bulls on the final day, finishing with a 10 – 14 – 8 record.

Despite winning the League Cup, Liverpool could only finish 8th in the Premier League, and Dalglish was dismissed in May 2012.

“ There is no prospect of ever winning Russian cooperation .” Despite its reservations, the 80th Congress implemented Truman ’ s requests, further escalating the Cold War with the USSR.

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 not making the playoffs, the Brewers had some other memorable moments, as Pat Listach hit. 290 and stole 54 bases while winning the AL Rookie of the Year award, while Robin Yount got his 3000th career hit.

Despite his efforts, he has not been on a title winning first-class domestic team in either the Premier Trophy or the County Championship.

Despite this, some wrestlers, such as Chris Jericho, Ric Flair, Bret Hart, Kurt Angle, Ken Shamrock, The Undertaker, Dean Malenko, and Chris Benoit, became famous for winning matches via submission.

Despite the AFL's New York Jets winning the previous season's Super Bowl, many sports writers and fans thought it was a fluke and continued to believe that the NFL was still superior to the AFL, and thus fully expected the Vikings to defeat the Chiefs ; the Vikings entered the Super Bowl as 12. 5 to 13-point favorites.

The structure of the latter event is such that it … justifies a belief that intelligent design is the cause … Despite the fact that the probability of winning three consecutive 1-in-1, 000 games is exactly the same as the probability of winning one 1-in-1, 000, 000, 000 game, the former event … warrants an inference of intelligent design.

Despite winning the Triple Crown, Williams came in second in the MVP voting to Joe Gordon of the Yankees.

Despite ZZ Top's popularity and success in the 1970s, it wasn't until the 1980s that they started winning major awards and honors.

Despite his injuries, he competed in the Nations Grand Prix at Monza six days later, winning the race after he had persuaded staff at the hospital to bandage him in a manner such that he could sit on his motorcycle and receive a push start.

Despite winning all three main round games, so did France and Spain, and those two teams qualified for the semi-finals from Group I.

Despite over 70 rehearsals between 1862 and 1864, Tristan und Isolde was unable to be staged in Vienna, winning the opera a reputation as unperformable.

Despite winning four terms as President, Blatter has often been dogged by controversy and allegations of corruption.

Despite another nomination for Best Picture and winning two Oscars for frequent collaborator Russell Boyd's cinematography, and for sound effects editing, the film's box office success was moderate ($ 93 million at the North American Box Office ).

Despite only winning numerically the vote in only 1 state ; the relatively electorally small Federal District which holds the capital of Brazil ; the Green Party interestingly came second to Dilma in Amapa, Amazonas, Pernambuco and in Rio de Janeiro in front of Jose Serra.

Despite the fact that the allegations were backed by successive UN Special Rapporteurs and a Canadian Government investigation, Bildt succeeded in winning the public controversy in Sweden, allowing Lundin Oil to pursue its activities in Sudan.

Despite his relative inexperience, Clark rose quickly in federal politics, entering the House of Commons in the 1972 election and winning the leadership of the Progressive Conservative Party in 1976.

Despite his. 333 winning percentage, Ryan tied for 5th place in the 1987 Cy Young voting.

Despite sending Kerry Wood to the mound and holding a lead twice, the Cubs ultimately dropped Game 7, and failed to reach the World Series.

Despite its editorial issues, the 3rd edition rules were well-received enough to win the 1986 / 1987 Gamer's Choice Award for " Best Science-Fiction Roleplaying Game " ( Rabe 1987 ).

Despite these criticisms, Joshi argues that since Gerald's Game ( 1993 ), King has been tempering the worst of his writing faults, producing books that are leaner, more believable and generally better written.

Despite those two close triumphs ( 22 – 21 against the Dolphins in the Divisional Round, and 17 – 13 against the Steelers in the AFC Championship Game ), the Chargers lost Super Bowl XXIX to the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 49 – 26, who were led by quarterback Steve Young ( Super Bowl MVP ) and wide receiver Jerry Rice.

Despite questions lingering about the team's struggling offense, the team compiled a 49 – 39 record by the 2009 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, good enough for second place in the NL West.

Despite its backlit colored screen and ergonomic design, the Game Gear managed just a moderate share of the market.

Despite all of this success, they were eliminated in the second round by the New York Islanders in overtime of Game 7.

Despite winning Game 2 by a score of 96 – 95, with the help of a James buzzer beating three-pointer, it was not enough as Orlando eventually took the series in 6 games.

Despite his absence, the Pistons rallied from 15 down in the third quarter to win Game 4 90 – 89, on a field goal by Tayshaun Prince with just 8. 9 seconds to play, taking a 3 – 1 series lead.

Despite four straight first round exits, this period was highlighted by a competitive first round series with the Boston Celtics in 1991 that went to Game 5.

Despite its use being criticized in most Super Mario Advance games, a GameSpy review called the version found in Super Mario Advance 2 a blast to play in multi-player because it only requires at least two Game Boy Advances, one copy of the game, and a link cable.

Despite being Mew's descendant, Mewtwo directly precedes Mew in the game's numerical Pokémon index owing to the latter's secret inclusion by Game Freak programmer Shigeki Morimoto.

Despite not possessing the four-octave range boasted by Kiske, Deris's vocal similarity to Kai Hansen, his enthusiasm, his strong songwriting skills, the return of the " classic " Helloween sound in songs such as " Where the Rain Grows " and " The Game Is On ", and the seeming rejuvenation of Weikath and Grapow seemed to strike a chord with the fans.

Despite its renown outside the school, only a very small number of the 250 or so boys in each year ever take part in the sport, unlike the lesser-known but much more widely played Eton Field Game.

Despite his successes, Buckner is best remembered for a fielding error during Game 6 of the 1986 World Series against the New York Mets, a play that since became prominently entrenched into American sports lore.

Despite scoring 39 points in regulation time and fouling out both Dampier and Keith Van Horn, Duncan only made one of seven field goal attempts in overtime against Mavericks reserve center DeSagana Diop, and the Spurs lost Game 7.

Despite Bailey's hopes of an annual All-Star Game, it did not become an annual tradition until the 1947 – 48 NHL season.

Despite ballot stuffing by Cincinnati Reds fans, he appeared in the All-Star Game, held at Sportsman's Park.

Despite the acquisition, Rare still kept developing games for Nintendo handheld consoles, as Microsoft is currently not participating in the handheld video game console market: In August 2003, Rare and Microsoft made a deal with THQ for Rare to publish games for the Game Boy Advance, which have included Sabre Wulf, a game based on an Ultimate character ; Banjo-Kazooie: Grunty's Revenge, an interquel to the two Nintendo 64 games ; and It's Mr. Pants !, a puzzle game that was originally developed as " Donkey Kong: Coconut Crackers ", and featured the company's unofficial mascot.

Despite this history, it will work fairly well with the Game Boy Advance SP.

Despite speculation that the game would be based on Super Metroid, Ken Lobb, Nintendo of America's Director of Game Development, quelled rumors by stating, " One of the things I wanted to get across in today's meeting is that Metroid is not Super Metroid.

Despite Fudge and other games, the open gaming movement did not gain widespread recognition within the role-playing game industry until 2000, when Wizards of the Coast ( WotC ) re-published the 3rd Edition of their popular Dungeons & Dragons role-playing system as the System Reference Document under the Open Game License.

Despite leading the playoffs in scoring through the first three rounds, Kovalchuk was playing through a herniated disc in his back, and was very ineffective against the Kings, scoring just one point in the series, an empty-net goal in Game 4, as the Devils fell to the Kings in six games.