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El Sayyid Nosair

El Sayyid Nosair (born 16 November 1955) is an Egyptian-born American citizen, convicted of involvement in the 1993 New York City landmark bomb plot. He had earlier been tried for, but acquitted of, the 1990 New York City assassination of Meir Kahane, a Jewish Rabbi, far-right Israeli politician, and founder of the Jewish Defense League. He later admitted to having committed this assassination as well.

In 1994, Nosair was convicted in federal court of nine counts, including seditious conspiracy, murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder of a U.S. Postal Inspection Service officer, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, use of a firearm during an attempted murder, and possession of a firearm.

Background
El Sayyid Nosair was born in 1955 in Port Said, Egypt, and immigrated to the United States in 1981. He became an American citizen in 1989. In the United States, Nosair worked various jobs in New Jersey and New York City. Nosair was employed by the City of New York to repair the air conditioning equipment at the criminal courts building.

Nosair expressed dislike for American culture and what he perceived to be rampant moral corruption. Nosair became involved with the al-Farouq Mosque in Brooklyn, which was supported by the Maktab al-Khadamat (Services Office), which was established in 1984 by Osama bin Laden and Abdullah Azzam in Peshawar, Pakistan. The purpose of the Services Office was to raise funds for the Arab mujahadeen during the Soviet–Afghan War, as well as recruitment. Ali Mohamed, a sergeant at Fort Bragg, provided United States Army manuals and other assistance to individuals at the al-Farouq Mosque, and some members, including Mahmoud Abouhalima and Nosair, practiced at the Calverton Shooting Range on Long Island, many of the group wearing shirts reading "Help Each Other in Goodness and Piety...A Muslim to a Muslim is a Brick Wall" with a map of Afghanistan emblazoned in the middle.

Assassination of Meir Kahane
In 1990, Nosair was accused of assassinating Rabbi Meir Kahane, the founder of the Jewish Defense League in the US and of the Kach party and terrorist organization in Israel, and formerly a member of the Israeli Knesset. Kahane was killed on November 5, 1990, shortly after 9:00p.m., following a speech to an audience of mostly Orthodox Jews from Brooklyn. A crowd of well-wishers gathered around Kahane following the speech in the second-floor lecture hall in midtown Manhattan's Marriott East Side Hotel. Following a skirmish, Nosair was shot by Carlos Acosta, a police officer for the United States Postal Inspection Service. The two continued to exchange gunfire before Nosair was apprehended. Nosair was taken to Bellevue Hospital for treatment of his wounds.

Trial
During legal proceedings, Nosair largely ignored the court and focused on multiple sketches he made of Princess Diana.

In a verdict described by law professor Jeffrey B. Abramson as "bizarre", a jury in December 1991 acquitted Nosair of Kahane's murder but convicted him of assault and possession of an illegal firearm. He was also convicted of related charges, including shooting Acosta. He was defended by William Kunstler (along with two co-counsels), who at first advised him to plead insanity. When Nosair refused, the defense argued that there had been a conspiracy against Nosair, and Kahane might have been killed by one of his followers. Kunstler saw the composition of the jury (which he described as being made up of "third-world people" and "people who were not yuppies or establishment types") as crucial to the verdict.

The judge in the trial, Justice Alvin Schlesinger, said that the jury's acquittal of Nosair on the murder charge was "against the overwhelming weight of evidence and was devoid of common sense and logic". The judge added that he believed Nosair "conducted a rape of this country, of our Constitution and of our laws, and of people seeking to exist peacefully together." On January 29, 1992, he sentenced Nosair to 7$1⁄3$ to 22 years in prison, the maximum allowed.

Kunstler also saw the verdict as irrational, promising to appeal Nosair's convictions.

Conspiracy to free Nosair from prison
Nosair was originally sentenced to serve his time at the Attica State Prison in New York. It was reported that prior to his arrest, Omar Abdul-Rahman (the "Blind Sheikh") and his followers had conducted detailed surveillance of the facility, and they had also discussed plans to rescue Nosair from prison by launching a truck bomb attack combined with an armed assault.

Terrorist conspiracy conviction
Nosair was still serving time in state prison when he was convicted as part of the federal trial of the "Blind Sheik" Omar Abdel-Rahman. Both received life sentences without the possibility of parole for their involvement in a terrorist conspiracy, in Nosair's case life plus 15 years' imprisonment. It was ruled that Kahane's death was part of the total "seditious conspiracy". Nosair was convicted of nine counts, including conspiracy to use explosives against New York landmarks, seditious conspiracy, plotting to assassinate U.S. politicians, murder of Kahane in aid of racketeering, attempted murder in aid of racketeering, attempted murder of a postal police officer, use of a firearm in the commission of a murder, use of a firearm in an attempted murder, and possession of a firearm; he received life plus 15 years of imprisonment. Nosair's relatives obtained funds from Osama bin Laden to pay for Nosair's defense.

Link to Osama bin Laden
In 2002, Eleanor Hill, director of the Senate Intelligence Committee investigating intelligence failures prior to the September 11, 2001, attacks, reported that Nosair had links with terrorist organizations in Pakistan and that Osama bin Laden helped pay for his legal defense during his trial for the assassination of Meir Kahane. The FBI learned that one of Nosair's relatives traveled to Saudi Arabia and acquired funds from Osama bin Laden to fund Nosair's legal defense. Ron Kuby, one of Nosair's lawyers, later stated that a cousin of Nosair's had pooled money together with Nosair's family to raise money for his legal defense.

Possible accomplices in Kahane's assassination
In August 2010, the Israeli newspaper The Jerusalem Post, referencing the August issue of Playboy, claimed that Nosair had two partners and that his original target was Israeli military figure and future Prime Minister of Israel Ariel Sharon. The article states: "He added that on the night he shot Kahane dead, he was accompanied by two co-conspirators to the Marriot Hotel in Manhattan where Kahane was speaking – one of whom was also carrying a gun. The men, Bilal al-Kaisi of Jordan and Mohammed A. Salameh, a Palestinian illegal alien who was later involved in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, have never been charged for their part in the slaying."

Family
Nosair married Karen Mills, a native of Pittsburgh who changed her given name to Khadijah when she converted from Roman Catholicism to Islam in 1982. The couple had two sons, and they raised a daughter from Khadijah's previous marriage. One of Nosair's sons, born Abdulaziz El Sayyid Nosair, changed his name to Zak Ebrahim and now works as a peace activist. He released his first book, The Terrorist's Son: A Story of Choice in September 2014.

title: El Sayyid Nosair


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Piano Concerto No. 3

Piano Concerto No. 3 refers to the third piano concerto written by one of a number of composers:

 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Balada), by Leonardo Balada, 1899
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Bartók) in E major (Sz. 119, BB 127) by Béla Bartók, 1945
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Beethoven) in C minor (Op. 37), c.1800
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Chopin) (Allegro de concert), 1841
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Hummel) in B minor (Op. 89), 1819
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Kabalevsky) in D major (Op. 50, Youth) by Dmitri Kabalevsky, 1952
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Lieberson), by Peter Lieberson, 2003
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Liszt) in E-flat major (Op. posth., S.125a), c.1839
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (MacMillan), (The Mysteries of Light) by James MacMillan, 2008
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Medtner) in E minor (Op. 60, Ballade), by Nikolai Medtner, 1943
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Mozart) in D major (K.40), by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, c.1772
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Ohzawa) in A-flat major (Kamikaze) by Hisato Ohzawa, 1938
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Prokofiev) in C major (Op. 26) by Sergei Prokofiev, 1913–21
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff) in D minor (Op. 30) by Sergei Rachmaninoff, 1909
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rautavaara) (Gift of Dreams) by Einojuhani Rautavaara, 1998
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Ries) in C-sharp minor (Op. 55) by Ferdinand Ries, c.1813
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Saint-Saëns) in E-flat major (Op. 29) by Camille Saint-Saëns, 1869
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Tchaikovsky) in E-flat major (Op. posth. 75) by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1893–94
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Villa-Lobos)
 * Piano Concerto No. 3 (Williamson) in E-flat major by Malcolm Williamson, 1962

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Piano Concerto No. 3


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Talk:Dancing music

Discussion moved from User talk:Mikkalai
Hi Mikkalai,

I originally #REDIRECTed Dance (music) to Dance music (traditional) and moved all the content to that article. We don't need to recreate that article.

If you want to create a new article with some of the contents that were moved there, then fine, but please avoid the close lexical overlap with Dance music. We should retitle this page to something that isn't so close, perhaps Dance music (classical) or somesuch. That way we would have 3 articles in the "Dance music" namespace:
 * Dance music: the modern sense
 * Dance music (classical): dance music in the "classical music" sense
 * Dance music (traditional): music for traditional dancing (jig, waltz)

But whatever we name it, please don't use Dance (music). --Lexor 03:00, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

It looks like you are completely reverting all my changes to your old edits. Please discuss this on the relevant Talk pages before doing this. --Lexor

--- Hi Lexor,

I am not reverting, I am putting them into broader context and linking with other musical topics like musical form, to clarify what it means.

As for "dance (music)" term, as I see it, it is standard way to narrow down the domain of the term. Unfortunately dance and music are too close arts to draw distinction in some cases.

Dance as form of musical composition and dance as art per se bear more semantic disticnction than Dance music (traditional) and Dance music (modern).

Besides, the term "classical" bears its own specific meaning, both in music and dance.

Once more, *please* leave the final decision to musical professionals. (Judging form the misunderstanding of my initial intentions, you are not the man of final word in this area.) I am also nobody, but your editing destroyed my intentions. My "back-editing" is not reverting; I didn't destroy yours: I merely put yours into a single page.

If "dance (music)" is still vague to you, please wait for third opinion.

mikkalai

 * I don't want to start an edit war, I didn't mean to suggest that you were "destroying" anything of mine, I'm sorry if you got that impression. The choice of the word "revert" was probably bad, I just wanted to point out that we should discuss these changes on Talk pages, since the edits put the articles closer to the original state.  Wikipedia is also not just the domain of the "professionals", by the way, so I and anyone else can contribute to these pages, without wating for a "final" decision.  Of course, I am willing to defer to those who have expertise in matters of fact, but the organization of articles is not the province solely of professionals in that area, after all this is an encyclopedia so laypeople play an important role in that very process of making the encyclopedia readable. Let's move this discussion to Talk:Dance music. (moved). --Lexor 03:26, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

 * I am not of sagacity to go any deeper in this discussion. I substantiated my point with cross-links from Music domain (making a bit harder to clip it away :-) and now I rest. (Or better not... Let me go and screw something up in Dance domain, where I know quite a bit more (ballroom dancing) Read ya there!)

 * mikkalai 25 Nov 2003
 * P.S. Timestamp in the signature: is it a feature of your text editor or of wikipedia?

 * It's a standard Wikipedia feature, try it, simply followup to this post and end it by typing: literally four tildes ~ . --Lexor 03:45, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Techno/House music
Dance music often refers to fastbeat house and techno music that is in proportion with the dots on a moving highway. Somebody should expand the Jock Jams article. --TheSamurai 03:47, 9 Apr 2005 (UTC)

modern/traditional
This article needs changing as was originally proposed back in '03. there is music made to accompany dance (ie music for traditional dancing, where the dance is the focus), and music made to entice dancing (where the music is the focus); the genre in itself, encompassing electronica, house, trance, etc etc.. They are clearly two different entities, and the latter is relegated to a meer tiny "Nightclubs and raves" section (not even 'modern dance music'); whilst it is not just something of "nightclubs and raves". i making this article refer to the "nightclubs and raves" section, and move the bluk of the article to dance music (traditional) or dancing music. many many 'pop'-related songs/albums/artists link to dance music in their genre box; and this article clearly does not refect the genre they are intending to link to. ~ Bungalowbill 11:13, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dancing music


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Yellowstone Caldera

The Yellowstone Caldera, sometimes referred to as the Yellowstone Supervolcano, is a volcanic caldera and supervolcano in Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States. The caldera and most of the park are located in the northwest corner of the state of Wyoming. The caldera measures 70 by 45 km, and postcaldera lavas spill out a significant distance beyond the caldera proper.

The caldera formed during the last of three supereruptions over the past 2.1 million years: the Huckleberry Ridge eruption 2.1 million years ago (which created the Island Park Caldera and the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff), the Mesa Falls eruption 1.3 million years ago (which created the Henry's Fork Caldera and the Mesa Falls Tuff), and the Lava Creek eruption approximately 640,000 years ago (which created the Yellowstone Caldera and the Lava Creek Tuff).

The caldera was the largest known until the discovery of Apolaki Caldera in 2019, which is more than twice as wide.

Volcanoes at Yellowstone
Volcanism at Yellowstone is relatively recent, with calderas created by large eruptions that took place 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and 640,000 years ago. The calderas lie over the Yellowstone hotspot under the Yellowstone Plateau where light and hot magma (molten rock) from the mantle rises toward the surface. The hotspot appears to move across terrain in the east-northeast direction, and is responsible for the eastern half of Idaho's Snake River Plain, but in fact the hotspot is much deeper than the surrounding terrain and remains stationary while the North American Plate moves west-southwest over it.

Over the past 16.5 million years or so, this hotspot has generated a succession of explosive eruptions and less violent floods of basaltic lava. Together these eruptions have helped create the eastern part of the Snake River Plain (to the west of Yellowstone) from a once-mountainous region. At least a dozen of these eruptions were so massive that they are classified as supereruptions. Volcanic eruptions sometimes empty their stores of magma so swiftly that the overlying land collapses into the emptied magma chamber, forming a geographic depression called a caldera.

The oldest identified caldera remnant straddles the border near McDermitt, Nevada–Oregon, although there are volcaniclastic piles and arcuate faults that define caldera complexes more than 60 km in diameter in the Carmacks Group of southwest-central Yukon, Canada, which are interpreted to have been formed 70 million years ago by the Yellowstone hotspot. Progressively younger volcanic units, most grouped in several overlapping volcanic fields, extend from the Nevada–Oregon border through the eastern Snake River Plain and terminate in the Yellowstone Plateau. One such field, the Bruneau-Jarbidge volcanic field in southern Idaho, was formed between 10 and 12 million years ago, and the event dropped ash to a depth of one foot (30 cm) 1000 mi away in northeastern Nebraska and killed large herds of rhinoceroses, camels, and other animals at Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historical Park. The United States Geological Survey (USGS) estimates there are one or two major caldera-forming eruptions and a hundred or so lava extruding eruptions per million years, and "several to many" steam eruptions per century.

The loosely defined term "supervolcano" has been used to describe volcanic fields that produce exceptionally large volcanic eruptions. Thus defined, the Yellowstone Supervolcano is the volcanic field that produced the latest three supereruptions from the Yellowstone hotspot; it also produced one additional smaller eruption, thereby creating the West Thumb of Yellowstone Lake 174,000 years ago. The three supereruptions occurred 2.1 million, 1.3 million, and approximately 640,000 years ago, forming the Island Park Caldera, the Henry's Fork Caldera, and Yellowstone calderas, respectively. The Island Park Caldera supereruption (2.1 million years ago), which produced the Huckleberry Ridge Tuff, was the largest, and produced 2,500 times as much ash as the 1980 Mount St. Helens eruption. The next biggest supereruption formed the Yellowstone Caldera (640,000 years ago) and produced the Lava Creek Tuff. The Henry's Fork Caldera (1.2 million years ago) produced the smaller Mesa Falls Tuff, but is the only caldera from the Snake River Plain–Yellowstone hotspot that is plainly visible today.

Non-explosive eruptions of lava and less-violent explosive eruptions have occurred in and near the Yellowstone caldera since the last supereruption. The most recent lava flow occurred about 70,000 years ago, while a violent eruption excavated the West Thumb of Lake Yellowstone 174,000 years ago. Smaller steam explosions occur as well. An explosion 13,800 years ago left a 5 km diameter crater at Mary Bay on the edge of Yellowstone Lake (located in the center of the caldera). Currently, volcanic activity is exhibited via numerous geothermal vents scattered throughout the region, including the famous Old Faithful Geyser, plus recorded ground-swelling indicating ongoing inflation of the underlying magma chamber.

The volcanic eruptions, as well as the continuing geothermal activity, are a result of a great plume of magma located below the caldera's surface. The magma in this plume contains gases that are kept dissolved by the immense pressure under which the magma is contained. If the pressure is released to a sufficient degree by some geological shift, then some of the gases bubble out and cause the magma to expand. This can cause a chain reaction. If the expansion results in further relief of pressure, for example, by blowing crust material off the top of the chamber, the result is a very large gas explosion.

According to analysis of earthquake data in 2013, the magma chamber is 80 km long and 20 km wide. It also has 4000 km3 underground volume, of which 6–8% is filled with molten rock. This is about 2.5 times bigger than scientists had previously imagined; however, scientists believe that the proportion of molten rock in the chamber is too low to allow for another supereruption.

In October 2017, research from Arizona State University indicated prior to Yellowstone's last supereruption, magma surged into the magma chamber in two large influxes. An analysis of crystals from Yellowstone's lava showed that prior to the last supereruption, the magma chamber underwent a rapid increase in temperature and change in composition. The analysis indicated that Yellowstone's magma reservoir can reach eruptive capacity and trigger a super-eruption within just decades, not centuries as volcanologists had originally thought.

IUGS geological heritage site
In respect of it being "well-known for its past explosive volcanic eruptions and lava flows as well for its world class hydrothermal system", the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) included "The Yellowstone volcanic and hydrothermal system" in its assemblage of 100 geological heritage sites around the world in a listing published in October 2022. The organization defines an IUGS Geological Heritage Site as "a key place with geological elements and/or processes of international scientific relevance, used as a reference, and/or with a substantial contribution to the development of geological sciences through history".

Yellowstone hotspot origin
The source of the Yellowstone hotspot is controversial. Some geoscientists hypothesize that the Yellowstone hotspot is the effect of an interaction between local conditions in the lithosphere and upper mantle convection. Others suggest an origin in the deep mantle (mantle plume). Part of the controversy is the relatively sudden appearance of the hotspot in the geologic record. Additionally, the Columbia Basalt flows appeared at the same approximate time in the same place, prompting speculation that they share a common origin. As the Yellowstone hotspot traveled to the east and north, the Columbia disturbance moved northward and eventually subsided.

An alternate theory to the mantle plume model was proposed in 2018. It is suggested that the volcanism may be caused by upwellings from the lower mantle resulting from water-rich fragments of the Farallon Plate descending from the Cascadia subduction region, sheared off at a subducted spreading rift.

Others suggest that the mantle plume could not have been a dominant force in Yellowstone volcanism due to the sinking Farallon plate, as it acts as a buffer that breaks apart the plume. Any heat from the plume that does make it to the surface is limited.

Earthquakes
Volcanic and tectonic actions in the region cause between 1,000 and 2,000 measurable earthquakes annually. Most are relatively minor, measuring magnitude 3 or weaker. Occasionally, numerous earthquakes are detected in a relatively short period of time, an event known as an earthquake swarm. In 1985, more than 3,000 earthquakes were measured over a period of several months. More than 70 smaller swarms were detected between 1983 and 2008. The USGS states these swarms are likely caused by slips on pre-existing faults rather than by movements of magma or hydrothermal fluids.

In December 2008, continuing into January 2009, more than 500 earthquakes were detected under the northwest end of Yellowstone Lake over a seven-day span, with the largest registering a magnitude of 3.9. Another swarm started in January 2010, after the Haiti earthquake and before the Chile earthquake. With 1,620 small earthquakes between January 17, 2010, and February 1, 2010, this swarm was the second-largest ever recorded in the Yellowstone Caldera. The largest of these shocks was a magnitude 3.8 that occurred on January 21, 2010. This swarm subsided to background levels by February 21. On March 30, 2014, at 6:34 AM MST, a magnitude 4.8 earthquake struck Yellowstone, the largest recorded there since February 1980. In February 2018, more than 300 earthquakes occurred, with the largest being a magnitude 2.9.

Volcanoes
The Lava Creek eruption of the Yellowstone Caldera, which occurred 640,000 years ago, ejected approximately 1000 km3 of rock, dust and volcanic ash into the atmosphere. It was Yellowstone's third and most recent caldera-forming eruption.

Geologists closely monitor the elevation of the Yellowstone Plateau, which has been rising as quickly as 150 mm per year, as an indirect measurement of changes in magma chamber pressure.

The upward movement of the Yellowstone caldera floor between 2004 and 2008—almost 75 mm each year—was more than three times greater than ever observed since such measurements began in 1923. From 2004 to 2008, the land surface within the caldera moved upward as much as 8 in at the White Lake GPS station. In January 2010, the USGS stated that "uplift of the Yellowstone Caldera has slowed significantly" and that uplift continues but at a slower pace. USGS, University of Utah and National Park Service scientists with the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory maintain that they "see no evidence that another such cataclysmic eruption will occur at Yellowstone in the foreseeable future. Recurrence intervals of these events are neither regular nor predictable." This conclusion was reiterated in December 2013 in the aftermath of the publication of a study by University of Utah scientists finding that the "size of the magma body beneath Yellowstone is significantly larger than had been thought". The Yellowstone Volcano Observatory issued a statement on its website stating: Although fascinating, the new findings do not imply increased geologic hazards at Yellowstone, and certainly do not increase the chances of a 'supereruption' in the near future. Contrary to some media reports, Yellowstone is not 'overdue' for a supereruption. Media reports were more hyperbolic in their coverage.

A study published in GSA Today, the monthly news and science magazine of the Geological Society of America, identified three fault zones where future eruptions are most likely to be centered. Two of those areas are associated with lava flows aged 174,000–70,000 years ago, and the third is a focus of present-day seismicity.

In 2017, NASA conducted a study to determine the feasibility of preventing the volcano from erupting. The results suggested that cooling the magma chamber by 35 percent would be enough to forestall such an incident. NASA proposed introducing water at high pressure 10 kilometers underground. The circulating water would release heat at the surface, possibly in a way that could be used as a geothermal power source. If enacted, the plan would cost about $3.46 billion. Brian Wilcox of the Jet Propulsion Laboratory observes that such a project could incidentally trigger an eruption if the top of the chamber is drilled into.

Hydrothermal explosions

Studies and analysis may indicate that the greater hazard comes from hydrothermal activity which occurs independently of volcanic activity. Over 20 large craters have been produced in the past 14,000 years, resulting in such features as Mary Bay, Turbid Lake, and Indian Pond, which was created in an eruption about 1300 BC.

In a 2003 report, USGS researchers proposed that an earthquake may have displaced more than 77 Mcuft of water in Yellowstone Lake, creating colossal waves that unsealed a capped geothermal system and led to the hydrothermal explosion that formed Mary Bay.

Further research shows that very distant earthquakes reach and have effects upon the activities at Yellowstone, such as the 1992 7.3 magnitude Landers earthquake in California's Mojave Desert that triggered a swarm of quakes from more than 800 mi away, and the 2002 7.9 magnitude Denali fault earthquake 2000 mi away in Alaska that altered the activity of many geysers and hot springs for several months afterward.

In 2016, the USGS announced plans to map the subterranean systems responsible for feeding the area's hydrothermal activity. According to the researchers, these maps could help predict when another eruption occurs.

title: Yellowstone Caldera


text:
Tokyo Yakult Swallows

The Tokyo Yakult Swallows (東京ヤクルトスワローズ) are a Japanese professional baseball team competing in Nippon Professional Baseball's Central League. Based in Shinjuku, Tokyo, they are one of two professional baseball teams in Tokyo, the other being the Yomiuri Giants. They have won nine Central League championships and six Japan Series championships. Since 1964, they have played their home games at Meiji Jingu Stadium.

The Swallows are named after their corporate owners, Yakult Honsha. From 1950 to 1965, the team was owned by the former Japanese National Railways (known as Kokutetsu (国鉄) in Japanese) and called the Kokutetsu Swallows; the team was then owned by the newspaper Sankei Shimbun from 1965 to 1968 and called the Sankei Atoms. Yakult purchased the team in 1970 and renamed it the Yakult Atoms, before renaming it again as the Yakult Swallows in 1974, and then the Tokyo Yakult Swallows in 2006.

Kokutetsu and Sankei era (1950–1969)
The franchise was established for the first time in 1950 when the team was created by the owners of what was then Japanese National Railways (now the privatized Japan Railways Group). The team name was made the Kokutetsu Swallows. The team never finished with a winning record in their entire first decade of the 1950s. In 1961, the team ended up being third in the league for first time in their team history. Konkutetsu chose "Swallows" as JNR had an express railway, which at the time, was the fastest in Japan, which was named Tsubame (or swallow in English). Other name ideas were railway themed, such as "Service" or "Whistles". Express was also considered, but was put out, due to fears within JNR of the team's name in headlines like "Express crashing" when the team was in a slump, or "Express explodes" when the team began winning a lot. (This similar issue would be the reason why Randy Bass would have his name transcribed in Japanese as Bāsu (バース, pronounced [baːsɯ]), due to Hanshin owning a bus line at the time, and bus in Japanese is known as basu (バス), which would similarly have a negative impact on Hanshin's bus line.)

Pitcher Masaichi Kaneda, nicknamed "The Emperor", starred for the team during this era and was the league's most dominant pitcher. Kaneda holds numerous career records in the Japanese leagues. For the Swallows, he went 14 straight seasons with at least 20 wins, led the league in strikeouts 10 times, wins three times, ERA three times, and won the Eiji Sawamura Award three times. Kaneda pitched for the Swallows from 1950 to 1964.

In 1965, the team was bought by Sankei Shimbun and Sankei retained the Swallows name for 1 year before switching their name to the Atoms, as they were one of the leading advocates of nuclear energy and they had no ties to the original name.

Yakult era (1970–2005)
In 1970, Sankei Shimbun offloaded the team to Yakult Honsha, and Yakult kept the Atoms name for 3 seasons before bringing back the original "Swallows" name due to petitions from fans. Sankei kept a minority stake in the team, negotiating a deal that broadcasts all Swallows home games on Fuji TV ONE.

The team won its first Japan Series championship in 1978.

In 1990, Katsuya Nomura became the new manager of Swallows, making drastic changes in the team. Although his first year with the Swallows resulted in them finishing in fifth place, the Swallows improved to third in the league the next year for the first time since 1980. From 1992 to 2001, the team won five Central League championships, prevailing in the Japan Series in 1993, 1995, 1997, and 2001. (Nomura managed the team to the first three of those championships.)

Tokyo Yakult era (2006–present)
In 2006, Tokyo was added to the team name, resulting in the team name of Tokyo Yakult Swallows, and the logo of Tokyo was added to the uniform for the first time since the Kokutetsu era. The team maintained a winning percentage of .500, and ended up in third place in the league.

2011 was an impressive year for the Swallows. In April, the Swallows topped the Central League and kept 1st place until September when the Chunichi Dragons climbed to win in the pennant race, ultimately leaving the Swallows in 2nd place in the Central League.

The Swallows entered the Climax Series in 2009, and faced the Yomiuri Giants for the stage 1, which ultimately resulted in a 2–1 victory. Swallows advanced for their first time into stage 2 and faced the defending Central League champions, the Chunichi Dragons. The Swallows eventually lost against the Dragons by 2–4, ending their postseason. At the end of season, Hirotoshi Ishii retired from the team.

In 2012, Norichika Aoki was posted to the Milwaukee Brewers. On 19 March 2012, the main office was moved to Kita-Aoyama which is located close to the Meiji Jingu Stadium from Higashi-Shinbashi.

In 2013, Swallows outfielder Wladimir Balentien broke the NPB single-season home run record, finishing the season with 60 home runs. This was majorly due to the league secretly introducing a more juiced ball that allowed more home runs to be scored, which caused three-term NPB commissioner Ryozo Kato to resign when the juiced ball was found about.

The Swallows finished the 2015 regular season with the Central League's best record and defeated the Yomiuri Giants in the Climax Series to advance to the Japan Series, where they lost to the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks in five games.

The Swallows clinched the 2021 Central League pennant on 26 October 2021 with a 5–1 victory over Yokohama DeNA BayStars, coupled with Hanshin Tigers losing 4-0 to Chunichi Dragons on the same night. The victory clinched the pennant with two games to spare in the regular season. This allowed them to advance to the final stage of the Climax Series, sweeping the Yomiuri Giants, 3-0, to advance to the Japan Series. They eventually won the series against the Orix Buffaloes in six games to win the Japan Series, their first since 2001. They backed it up in 2022 with an 80-59-4 record, winning the 2022 Central League pennant and returning to the Japan Series by sweeping the Hanshin Tigers in the 2022 Central League Climax Series, once again facing the Orix Buffaloes. This time however, the Buffaloes would exact revenge on the Swallows, beating them in the Japan Series in seven games, 4–2–1. Third baseman Munetaka Murakami broke the Japanese-born single season home run record in 2022 with 56 home runs, surpassing Sadaharu Oh's record of 55 set in 1964.

Honoured numbers

 * 1: Tsutomu Wakamatsu (若松 勉)
 * 6: Shinya Miyamoto (宮本 慎也)
 * 8: Katsuo Osugi (大杉 勝男)
 * 27: Atsuya Furuta (古田 敦也) – Player manager in 2006–2007

Former players
🇯🇵 Masaichi Kaneda (1950–1964) 🇯🇵 Yukihiko Machida (1952–1964) 🇯🇵 Yasumitsu Toyoda (1963–1969) 🇯🇵 Hiromu Matsuoka (1968–1985) 🇯🇵 Akihiko Ohya (1970–1985) 🇯🇵 Yukio Yaegashi (1970–1993) 🇯🇵 Takeshi Yasuda (1971–1981) 🇯🇵 Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1972–1989) 🇺🇸 Joe Pepitone (1973) 🇺🇸 Roger Repoz (1974–1977) 🇺🇸 Charlie Manuel (1976–1978) 🇺🇸 Dave Hilton (1978–1979) 🇯🇵 Daisuke Araki (1983–1995) 🇯🇵 Hideki Kuriyama (1984–1990) 🇯🇵 Takahiro Ikeyama (1984–2002) 🇯🇵 Katsumi Hirosawa (1985–1994) 🇺🇸 Bob Horner (1987) 🇯🇵 Tetsuya Iida (1987–2004) 🇯🇵 Katsuyuki Dobashi (1987–2006) 🇯🇵 Kenji Tomashino (1989–1997) 🇺🇸 Larry Parrish (1989) 🇺🇸 Floyd Bannister (1990) 🇯🇵 Atsuya Furuta (1990–2007) 🇯🇵 Tatsuji Nishimura (1990–1994) 🇺🇸 Johnny Ray (1991–1992) 🇯🇵 Yōichi Okabayashi (1991–2000) 🇺🇸 Jack Howell (1992–1994) 🇺🇸 Rex Hudler (1993) 🇯🇵 Mitsuru Manaka (1993–2008) 🇯🇵 Futoshi Yamabe (1994–2006) Hensley Meulens (1995–1996) 🇺🇸 Tom O'Malley (1995–1996) 🇺🇸 Terry Bross (1995–1997) 🇯🇵 Atsunori Inaba (1995–2004) 🇯🇵 Shinya Miyamoto (1995–2013) 🇯🇵 Shinichi Sato (1996–2005) 🇺🇸 Dwayne Hosey (1997–1998) 🇯🇵 Ryota Igarashi (1998–2009, 2019–2020) 🇺🇸 Jason Jacome (1999–2000) 🇻🇪 Roberto Petagine (1999–2002) 🇻🇪 Alex Ramírez (2001–2007) 🇯🇵 Yuhei Takai (2003–2021) 🇨🇦 Aaron Guiel (2007–2011) 🇰🇷 Lim Chang-yong (2008–2012) 🇰🇷 Ha Jae-hoon (2016) 🇯🇵 Tomotaka Sakaguchi (2016–2022) 🇯🇵 Seiichi Uchikawa (2021–2022) 🇯🇵 Takahiro Araki (2010–2023)

MLB players

 * Masato Yoshii (1998–2002)
 * Kazuhisa Ishii (2002–2005)
 * Shingo Takatsu (2004–2005)
 * Akinori Iwamura (2007–2010)
 * Ryota Igarashi (2010–2012)
 * Norichika Aoki (2012–2017)
 * Tony Barnette (2016–2019)

Managers

 * 🇯🇵 Tokuo Nishigaki (1950–1953)
 * 🇯🇵 Soichi Fujita (1954–1955)
 * 🇯🇵 Mitsuo Uno (1956–1960)
 * 🇯🇵 Kuninobu Sunaoshi (1961–1962)
 * 🇯🇵 Shinji Hamazaki (1963)
 * 🇯🇵 Giichi Hayashi (1964–1965)
 * 🇯🇵 Tokuji Iida (1966–1967)
 * 🇯🇵 Takehiko Bessho (1968–1970)
 * 🇯🇵 Osamu Mihara (1971–1973)
 * 🇯🇵 Hiroshi Arakawa (1974–1976)
 * 🇯🇵 Tatsuro Hirooka (1976–1979)
 * 🇯🇵 Shiro Takegami (1980–1984)
 * 🇯🇵 Masayuki Dobashi (1984–1986)
 * 🇯🇵 Junzo Sekine (1987–1989)
 * 🇯🇵 Katsuya Nomura (1990–1998)
 * 🇯🇵 Tsutomu Wakamatsu (1999–2005)
 * 🇯🇵 Atsuya Furuta (2006–2007) - Player Manager
 * 🇯🇵 Shigeru Takada (2008–2010)
 * 🇯🇵 Junji Ogawa (2011–2014, 2018–2019)
 * 🇯🇵 Mitsuru Manaka (2015–2017)
 * 🇯🇵 Shingo Takatsu (2020–present)

Top starting pitchers
Source:Nippon Professional Baseball League (NPB)

Mascots
The team's mascot is a black swallow with a red face named Tsubakuro (つば九郎). He is known for his feuds with the Orix Buffaloes mascots. He always wears a batting helmet. Whenever the Swallows wear special home unis, Tsubakuro also wears the same.

The number on the back of his uniform is "2896" as opposed to 111/222 used by Buffalo Bull and Buffalo Bell, the Buffaloes' mascots.

There is also a female swallow mascot named Tsubami. She wears a skirt and may be intended as Tsubakuro's little sister, just as Bell is Bull's little sister. Unlike her brother, she wears a sports visor.

Before Tsubakuro was created, the teams mascots were Yabo and Sue-Chan (ヤー坊 & スーちゃん), who were the team mascots from 1979 to 1994.

The team also had a third mascot named Torcuya(トルクーヤ), a swallow who resembles a luchador. He always carries around a parasol and a bottle of Yakult that he carries on his back. He were the team mascot from 2014 to present.

The team also had a former mascot named Entaro (燕太郎), a swallow who wore a jersey and his jersey number is 8960. He was replaced by Torcuya in 2014.

Minor League team
The Swallows farm team plays in the Eastern League. The team was founded in 1950.

title: Tokyo Yakult Swallows


text:
Philip J. Fry

Philip J. Fry, commonly known mononymously by his surname Fry, is a fictional character and the protagonist of the animated series Futurama. He is voiced by Billy West using a version of his own voice as he sounded when he was 25. He is a delivery boy from the 20th century who becomes cryogenically frozen and reawakens in the 30th century to become a delivery boy there with an intergalactic delivery company run by his 30th great-grandnephew, Professor Hubert J. Farnsworth. He is the best friend and roommate of Bender and the boyfriend and later fiancé of Leela.

Character overview
Fry was born in the 20th century in New York City. He is an immature pizza delivery boy who, during the first few seconds of 2000, falls into a cryogenic tank while delivering a pizza to Applied Cryogenics. He remains frozen until the last day of 2999. He then meets the one-eyed cryogenics counselor Leela, as well as the cigar-smoking, alcoholic, kleptomaniac robot Bender. Together, they are employed by Fry's distant nephew, the senile and demented old scientist Professor Farnsworth, as the crew of his delivery company Planet Express.

Fry's parents are Yancy Fry Sr., a strict Republican who believes in conspiracy theories, and Sherri Fry (née Gleisner), an avid New York Mets fan. It was later revealed that Fry's family on his father's side is from New Mexico. Fry had an older brother named Yancy; a dog named Seymour; and a ex-girlfriend named Michelle Jenkins (who dumps him in the first episode, "Space Pilot 3000", just before he is frozen). Fry had a lifelong sibling rivalry with his older brother Yancy, due to Fry's perception that Yancy steals everything from him and vice versa; in "The Luck of the Fryrish", however, it is revealed his brother loved him dearly, and later named his son after him.

After dropping out of Coney Island Community College, Fry got a job as a delivery boy at Panucci's Pizza. Depictions of Fry's family in early episodes showed them as extremely dysfunctional, with an inattentive mother and borderline-abusive father. Later seasons, however, depicted them as much closer and, while still dysfunctional, more loving and attentive, with Fry's father treating him harshly to ensure he grew up tough.

Personality and abilities
Fry is characterized as lazy, gullible, and none-too-bright, but also innocent, playful and kind-hearted. Fry regards Bender as his closest friend despite the latter's mean-spirited, selfish nature and constant abuse. He also has strong feelings for Leela, although he lacks the charisma required for properly articulating his emotions. Throughout the early seasons of the show, Leela is shown to have feelings for Fry that she is reluctant to act on due to his immaturity. It isn’t until the movie Into the Wild Green Yonder that she admits to loving him back. At the end of that film, they are seen sharing a kiss as they enter a wormhole, and subsequently begin dating. Despite his below-average intelligence, Fry has a soft and tender heart, frequently going the extra mile to help his friends, even if he is oblivious to their problems; he is the only other staff member aside from Professor Farnsworth who genuinely enjoys the company of the ship's doctor, Zoidberg. Fry has a strong sense of justice and is far from afraid of standing up for himself and his friends and family. He has shown remarkable skill playing video games, (even mastering the 31st-century's version on the Internet), and in "Bender Should Not Be Allowed on TV" is seen successfully playing a game despite not looking at the screen. This skill carries over to using Planet Express Ship's laser gun. Owing to these elements of his personality, Fry also exhibits remarkable bravery and self-sacrifice on occasion and has even displayed flashes of intuition. He has even proved to be a competent fighter in "Law and Oracle" and "Fun on a Bun", the latter episode showing that Fry is skilled enough to hold his own against Leela in direct physical combat. He has also survived a heart attack intentionally caused by Bender.

In the episode "The Why of Fry", Leela's seemingly oblivious pet Nibbler reveals himself as the reason for Fry's freezing. Due to a time-travel incident in "Roswell That Ends Well", Fry became his own grandfather, but this genetic defect also means that Fry lacks the Delta brainwave that enables conscious thought, his mind instead consisting of an apparently random assortment of other waves that function as a working mind (Leela compared it to a dress made out of carpet remnants). As a result of this defect, Fry can withstand the intellect-draining onslaught of the evil Brainspawn and is immune to the Dark One's mind-reading in Into the Wild Green Yonder as well as the mind-controlling power of the Hypnotoad. Due to this quirk, Nibbler's race, the Nibblonians, dub him "The Mighty One". Through prediction (on the eve of 1999, as the Nibblonians lack the ability to travel through time), they guessed that Fry would be the one to save the world from the evil Brainspawn. Because his natural lifespan would not extend to the right millennium, however, Nibbler is sent to make the aforementioned delivery call to push an unsuspecting Fry into the cryogenic tube, to re-emerge December 31, 2999. When Fry learned of this, he briefly allowed the Brainspawn to send him back in time to stop Nibbler from sending him to the future, but after confirming that Nibbler hadn't come back in time and was acting only to protect the future, Fry chose to let his past self fall into the tube to preserve the timeline.

In several episodes, he feels nostalgic for the 20th century and attempts to convince his coworkers of the greatness of the century.

Leela
Leela is Fry's main love interest and later wife. His love for her provides a major plotline throughout the series. Fry first begins to show a serious interest in her from the second season onwards, although she constantly turns him down for other dates due to his immaturity. Still, she says that she loves his boyish charm. Leela initially sees Fry as a friend and nothing more, but deeper affection for him appears occasionally, such as on the numerous occasions when he risks his life for hers ("Love and Rocket", "The Sting", "Lrrreconcilable Ndndifferences").

Fry's feelings for Leela are openly displayed throughout the series. In "The Sting", Fry throws himself in front of a baby Queen Bee to protect Leela, resulting in the bee's stinger completely penetrating his torso. In "Love and Rocket", upon noticing that Leela's oxygen tank was running on "critical", he attaches her oxygen tube to his tank, giving her his oxygen and almost asphyxiating himself. In "Parasites Lost", Fry becomes infected with symbiotic "parasites" which enhance his muscles and intelligence, allowing him to attract Leela's romantic attention. However, fearing that Leela was attracted to him only for his worms, he rids himself of them in a failed bid to begin a genuine relationship. In "Time Keeps on Slippin'", Fry moves the stars to write a love note to Leela, but the message is blown up before she can read it. In the final episode of the initial run, "The Devil's Hands are Idle Playthings", Fry trades hands with the Robot Devil in order to compose an opera about Leela in which they fall in love. When Fry returns the Robot Devil's hands to prevent him from forcing Leela to marry him, the opera deteriorates, causing the audience to leave. Fry sadly walks off the stage. Leela is the only one who remains behind, asking Fry not to stop because she wants to hear how it ends. He picks up his holophonor and composes a crude ending in which the stage-Fry and stage-Leela share a single kiss.

In the film Futurama: Bender's Big Score Leela falls in love with a seemingly perfect man, Lars, and they soon become engaged. However, Lars leaves Leela on her wedding day explaining later that as a time paradox he is doomed, and that he would not marry her only to have her lose him soon after. Through this, he then reveals that he is in fact the time paradox of Fry, who had undergone physical changes due to an explosion and become more mature through 12 years of age and experience.

At the end of the film Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder, Leela openly admits to loving Fry, and they commence an openly romantic relationship from the episode "Rebirth" onwards. In "The Prisoner of Benda" they have "sex", albeit in differing bodies. The on-again, off-again nature of their relationship causes Leela to leave Planet Express and Fry in "Overclockwise", however by the end of the episode, Leela returns to Planet Express and seemingly reunites with Fry. Bender reveals to both Fry and Leela their "ultimate fate" that he learned while he was overclocked. The audience is never shown the contents, but through their facial expressions, it is clear that while the journey for them may be bumpy, Fry and Leela will ultimately end up happy.

In later episodes, such as "The Butterjunk Effect" and "Fun on a Bun", Fry and Leela are shown to be in a relationship, though the events of the series precipitate frequent arguments and breakups. These issues are usually resolved within the episode, leaving Fry and Leela still together at the end.

During the season finale "Meanwhile", Fry decides that it is time for him to propose to Leela. Wanting the moment of his proposal to last longer, he steals Professor Farnsworth's time machine remote that turns back time every 10 seconds. When Leela is late, he thinks she has rejected him and attempts suicide by jumping off the building; he sees her arriving just in time, however, and presses the reset button over and over again to keep from hitting the ground. He accidentally breaks the remote and freezes time, leaving himself and Leela as the only unfrozen beings in the universe. Leela accepts Fry's proposal, and they have a long, happy unofficial "marriage". After spending decades traveling the world, they return to the spot where Fry was planning to propose. As they toast to their life together, the Professor shows up and repairs the time machine but informs them it will reset their lives to the moment before he invented the machine, leaving them with no memory of the life they spent together. Fry asks Leela if she wants to go around again with him, and she replies that she does.

The first part of the eighth season, picking up ten years after time was frozen, shows a young-again Fry and Leela continuing their relationship.

Michelle Jenkins
Michelle Jenkins (voiced by Kath Soucie in the first appearance, Sarah Silverman in the second appearance) is Fry's on-and-off ex-girlfriend from the 20th century. Shortly before Fry is frozen, she dumps him for a man named Constantine (called Charles in "The Cryonic Woman"), whom she later marries. They eventually split up, and she decides to freeze herself to try again in the distant future. She wakes up in 3002, meets Fry again, and restarts her relationship with him. However, she fails to fit into the 31st-century life to which Fry has become so accustomed, and so asks him to freeze himself with her for another thousand years. This plan fails, as does the rekindled relationship, so Fry leaves her. She later is shown in a limousine with the recently unfrozen Pauly Shore. In the episode "Proposition Infinity", she is again shown with Pauly Shore, and the implication is that they are now married.

Amy Kroker (née Wong)
During a trip on the luxury starliner Titanic, Amy Wong passes Fry off as her boyfriend to avoid being set up by her parents with an unattractive potential husband. Unfortunately, Leela was also passing Fry off as her fiancé to ward off the attentions of Zapp Brannigan. Potential embarrassment is averted by catastrophic damage to the ship, and Amy wins the battle of the bogus boyfriends.

In "Put Your Head on My Shoulders", Fry and Amy are trapped together in a desert on Mercury and realize they have a lot in common. While being towed to the nearest gas station to refuel, they have sex in the car. They continue the relationship back home, but Fry intends to end it the day before Valentine's Day because he feels that they are spending too much time together. An accident ends with Fry's head being temporarily attached to Amy's body, causing much tension due to Fry's decision to break up and Amy's subsequent date, forcing Leela to step in and distract Amy's date to save Fry from an awkward situation. Despite their break-up, they remain good friends.

Morgan Proctor
In "How Hermes Requisitioned His Groove Back", while Hermes was on forced paid leave, Fry had a secret affair with his temporary replacement, Morgan Proctor, due to her fetish for messy men. She informed Fry that no one could know about them, and she'd deny any mention of it. Fry and Morgan's affair ended when Bender caught them, leading her to deprogram Bender so Fry ended their affair.

Umbriel
In "The Deep South" after the Planet Express crew discovers the mythical underwater city of Atlanta, Fry starts dating a mermaid named Umbriel. After she shows him the wonders of the deep sea, he decides to stay with her, but changes his mind when he learns how merpeople have sex.

Mildred Fry
After an accident with a microwave caused the crew and the professor to be thrown back into time, Fry meets his paternal grandparents in the year 1947 on the Roswell, New Mexico air force base. After realizing that his existence depends on his paternal grandparents having children, Fry tries to protect his grandfather by locking him into an abandoned house in the desert. Unfortunately, the house was a test site for a nuclear bomb which killed his paternal grandfather. After realizing he was still alive after his paternal grandfather died, he decided that Mildred couldn't be his paternal grandmother and slept with her after she seduces him. However, Professor then points out that he was still alive because Fry had become his own grandfather by sleeping with Mildred, who really is his paternal grandmother. Fry was disgusted after he realized that he is now the father of his own father. In many episodes, he has a different reaction to the encounter being either proud or disturbed.

Colleen O'Hallahan
During the events of "Futurama: The Beast with a Billion Backs" Fry meets police chief Colleen O'Hallahan while observing the tear in the universe and soon begin dating. Their relationship is happy and serious, which makes Leela jealous as she finally came to return Fry's feelings. When Fry agrees to move in with Colleen, he learns that she has four other live-in boyfriends. Failing to adjust to her polyandrous marriage he breaks up with her, leaving himself heartbroken. His sadness at losing Colleen leads him to travel into the tear where he meets the alien Yivo who he introduces to the rest of the universe, and the whole universe all come to fall in love with Yivo. Eventually, Yivo later breaks up with the whole universe except Colleen as they both cannot be satisfied being in love with a single person. Before she moves in permanently with Yivo, Colleen thanks Fry for introducing her to Yivo.

Professor Farnsworth
Professor Hubert Farnsworth is the distant nephew of Philip J. Fry and his only living family member in the 31st century aside from Cubert and Igner. He runs a small delivery service to fund his scientific research and gives Fry, Leela, and Bender jobs. Although the professor is an accomplished scientist, he is often cruel and senile. As of the episode "A Clone of My Own," he is 160 years old.

Cubert Farnsworth
Cubert is the young clone of the professor and is often portrayed as his son. He was created as an heir to all of the professor's research, but was kept in the tube too long resulting in a pressed in nose. He often gets into trouble and makes fun of Fry for being dumb. He is also good friends with Dwight Conrad, the son of Hermes.

Igner
Igner is the son of the professor and Mom. He was raised by Mom and neither he nor the professor knew who the father was. His father wasn't revealed until Bender's Game.

Mildred
Mildred was the grandmother of Fry. During his time in the past, due to an incident with the microwave, Fry accidentally kills his grandfather by locking him in a cabin located in a nuclear test site and returns to Mildred who seduces him after Fry decides that she couldn't possibly be his real grandmother because he was still alive. The professor, Leela, and Bender then find Fry in bed with Mildred and point out that because Fry was still alive after his grandfather's death, he had become his own grandfather and that he had still slept with his own grandmother.

Yancy Fry Sr.
Yancy Senior is the father of Yancy Fry Jr. and Philip J. Fry. He is a large man who is often seen in flashbacks preparing against the "commie invasion" or the Y2K apocalypse. He and his wife often express how much they miss Fry after his disappearance despite numerous flashbacks where they are seen making light of it or suggesting that they made little effort to find him. Fry later traveled back in time and impregnated his grandmother, making him the father of his own father.

Mrs. Fry
Fry's mother. Fry and his mother seemed to have had a better relationship. Although she often joins in on the jokes about his disappearance, she has expressed sadness over his loss and is able to tell him how much she loved him when Nibbler allows Fry to enter into her dreams and say goodbye.

Yancy Fry Jr. and Philip J. Fry II
Yancy Jr. is Fry's older brother. Yancy and Philip had an intense sibling rivalry over basketball, dancing, and various other activities. During this time, Fry found a lucky seven-leaf clover that seems to bring him an incredible amount of raw talent at whatever he does. Yancy and Philip are constantly fighting over the clover until Fry decides to hide it in an old record vault. After Fry's disappearance, Yancy breaks into the vault to find music he can use at his wedding reception and finds the clover. Yancy ends up giving the clover to his son Philip who he named after his uncle. Fry eventually sees a picture of his nephew, who was the first person on Mars, in the future and believes that it was Yancy Jr. who had stolen his name and his dream of going into space (which the gang points out Fry does every day now). Fry eventually finds Philip's grave and decides to rob it in an effort to take back the clover. He has a horrible realization that the grave he was robbing was that of his nephew and not his brother when he clears the headstone and it reads "Here lies Philip J. Fry. Named for his uncle to carry on his spirit." Fry then places the clover back into the grave and leaves his nephew's grave, realizing how much his brother loved and missed him.

Fry's nephew appears in person during Bender's Big Score. Bender travels back in time to the year 2012, intent on assassinating Fry. He encounters a young boy who shares Fry's name and prepares to kill him, but stops when the boy says that Fry is his uncle.

Production
Although Billy West stated in an interview that the name "Philip" was given to Fry by Matt Groening as a homage to the late Phil Hartman, for whom the role of Zapp Brannigan was created, Groening said during the 2013 Futurama panel at the San Diego Comic-Con that Fry was in fact named after Groening's father, Homer Philip Groening, who was also the namesake for Homer Simpson.

According to Groening, Fry's character developed over time while still keeping his qualities as a loser and the characteristics which writers hoped would make him appeal to the target young male audience. Fry's character is essentially a bungling, stubborn slob with a heart of gold who cannot get ahead in the world, but still has a slight glimmer of hope. Fry's trademark outfit – a red windbreaker jacket, white t-shirt and blue jeans – is based on James Dean's outfit from Rebel Without a Cause.

Fry is voiced by Billy West, who also voices Doctor Zoidberg, Hubert J. Farnsworth and various other characters in the series. Although West auditioned for the part, it was originally given to Charlie Schlatter; however, after a casting change, West was offered the job. The voice West uses for Fry has been described as that of a "generic Saturday-morning good guy". Other actors who auditioned for Fry include Ryan Stiles  and Rob Paulsen. West admits that he intentionally made Fry's sound similar to his own, claiming that keeping the "cartoony" aspects out of it would make it harder for someone else to imitate the same voice. He notes that the voice is higher than his own and that he tried to duplicate the voice he had at age 25, which he describes as "this whiny, complaining voice — this plain vanilla voice". West also voices Lars Fillmore in Futurama: Bender's Big Score, who is a time travel duplicate of Fry with an injured larynx, and therefore, a slightly altered voice. The producers initially considered having a different voice actor do Lars' voice in order to keep viewers from guessing his true identity, but ultimately decided it would not make sense if anyone besides West did the voice.

title: Philip J. Fry


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Abruka

Abruka is a village in Estonia, primarily composed of the 8.78 sqkm island of Abruka in the Gulf of Riga, 4 km south of the island of Saaremaa. The village includes the smaller adjacent islands of Vahase, Kasselaid, Linnusitamaa and Kirjurahu, resulting in a total area of 10.1 sqkm.

Abruka is part of Saaremaa Parish, Saare County. The village has a population of 33 (as of 1 January 2011).

The first records about the population on Abruka originate from the Middle Ages, when the area was ruled by the Prussian State of the Teutonic Order; the Bishop of Ösel-Wiek founded a horse breeding manor on the largest island, named Abro in the Teutonic Order's Low German language. Permanent population developed in the 18th century. From 1881–1972, an elementary school operated on Abruka.

Abruka is the site of a Central European-type broadleaf forest, which is rare in the region. To protect this a nature reserve was created in 1937.

There's a library (located in the harbour building) and a museum which is located on the side of the former manor park in the oldest building on Abruka (The Abruka House).

Abruka can be reached by postboat Heili from Roomassaare harbour in Kuressaare.

The twin writers Jüri Tuulik and Ülo Tuulik (born 1940) were born on Abruka.

title: Abruka


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Aegna

Aegna is an Estonian island in the Bay of Tallinn in the Baltic Sea. Administratively it is part of the city of Tallinn, the capital of Estonia and is a sub district of the Kesklinn (City center) district.

Geography
Aegna island has an area of 3 km2, and can be found off the Viimsi peninsula, around 1.5 km NW of Rohuneeme and 14 km north of Tallinn. It has a 10 km coastline which includes two sandy beaches. The island's highest point is about 13 m above sea level.

, Aegna had 16 permanent residents.

Attractions
Aegna is a popular destination for day and camping trips, and has around 15 km of walking routes. There is also a WDS Aegna Meditation and Development Centre, opened in the summer time. On the island stands the Eerikukivi, a glacial erratic declared  Protected Natural Monument.

History
Aegna's history dates back thousands of years, but the first written accounts of the island go back to 1297, when Danish king Erik Menved prohibited forestry on the islands of Naissaar and Aegna. Northern Estonia or Estland was also part of Denmark over a century, including Aegna. Historically, the population of Aegna has been mixed with predominantly Estonian and Swedish inhabitants. Inhabitants of the island were mostly fishermen.

Aegna has been used for military purposes during the Imperial Russia, Republic of Estonia and Soviet occupation time of Estonia. Military remains that can still be seen include those of a military watchtower, a large gun battery with tunnels, and the light railway used in its construction.

On 10 August 2005 a Copterline helicopter on Tallinn–Helsinki route crashed 3 km south of the island. All 14 people on the helicopter died.

Transport
The small ferry Juku operates to and from the island during the summer months, with support from the city of Tallinn. In the summer of 2010 the Juku was operated by Kihnu Veeteed

During the summer Tallinn-Cruises operate sightseeing tours to the island using the boat "Monica"

The island can also be reached by boats or yachts chartered from Pirita Harbour

In 2022 a new ferry was introduced, reducing the journey time to Aegna to 30 minutes. The Vegtind can accommodate 100 passengers and 20 bicycles, and is operated by the company Spinnaker.

Port
The Port of Aegna (port code EE AEN, Aegna sadam) is a seaport situated on the southern coast of Aegna.

title: Aegna


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User talk:PaulAllison

I'm wondering how a group of juniors in high school who are all reading the same book might contribute to these pages. They will be reading Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God. I'm interested in having them contribute pages the use NPOV, and I'm curious to see how this does and doesn't fit with Reader-response criticism.

I like this idea, which is on the Contributing to Wikipedia help page:

"Make a project. Take a book and write a thorough chapter-by-chapter summary. Make pages for all the characters. Or do this with a well-known fictional universe (Star Wars, Middle-earth)."

How much should I set up for them? How much should they find their own way on a Wiki like thie one?

Hello Paul, welcome to Wikipedia. Fuzheado might be a good person to ask about bringing students onto Wikipedia as he has done this in the past.

If you have any questions, see the help pages, add a question to the village pump or ask me on my talk page. I hope you and your students enjoy editing here and being Wikipedians! Angela. 20:21, 9 Dec 2003 (UTC)

title: User talk:PaulAllison


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Ahtra

Ahtra is an Estonian island in the Baltic Sea. Its coordinates are 58.26889°N, 24.21889°W.

title: Ahtra


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Central League

The Central League (セントラル・リーグ) or Ce League (セ・リーグ) is one of the two professional baseball leagues that constitute Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship plays against the winner of the Pacific League in the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around the country. Unlike the Pacific League, designated hitters are not used during Central League home games.

History
The Central League was founded in 1949 with eight teams: four holdovers from the previous Japanese Baseball League — the Chunichi Dragons, the Hanshin Tigers, the Yomiuri Giants, and the Shochiku Robins (formerly the Taiyō Robins) — and four new teams — the Hiroshima Carp, the Kokutetsu Swallows, the Nishi Nippon Pirates, and the Taiyō Whales.

The Nishi Nippon Pirates existed for one season — they placed sixth in 1950, and the following season merged with the also Fukuoka-based Nishitetsu Clippers (a member of the Pacific League) to form the Nishitetsu Lions, who joined the Pacific League. This brought the number of Central League teams down to an ungainly arrangement of seven.

Ryuji Suzuki became president of the Central League in 1952.

In 1952, it was decided that any team ending the season with a winning percentage below .300 would be disbanded or merged with other teams. The Shochiku Robins fell into this category, and were merged with the Taiyō Whales to become the Taiyō Shochiku Robins in January 1953. This enabled the Central League to shrink to an even number of six teams.

Ryuji Suzuki retired as CL president in 1984 after 33 years at the post.

In 2007, a new Climax Series was introduced. This playoff series was inspired by the stepladder playoff used in the Pacific League introduced in 2004 for the top three teams of the league to determine which one progressed to the Japan Series. Under the previous system, there was no post-season playoff and the winner of the pennant automatically qualified for the Japan Series.

Central League pennant winners

 * 2023 Hanshin Tigers
 * 2022 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2021 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2020 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2019 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2018 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 2017 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 2016 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 2015 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2014 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2013 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2012 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2011 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2010 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2009 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2008 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2007 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2006 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2005 Hanshin Tigers
 * 2004 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2003 Hanshin Tigers
 * 2002 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2001 Yakult Swallows
 * 2000 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1999 Chunichi Dragons
 * 1998 Yokohama BayStars
 * 1997 Yakult Swallows
 * 1996 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1995 Yakult Swallows
 * 1994 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1993 Yakult Swallows
 * 1992 Yakult Swallows
 * 1991 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1990 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1989 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1988 Chunichi Dragons
 * 1987 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1986 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1985 Hanshin Tigers
 * 1984 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1983 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1982 Chunichi Dragons
 * 1981 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1980 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1979 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1978 Yakult Swallows
 * 1977 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1976 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1975 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 1974 Chunichi Dragons
 * 1973 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1972 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1971 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1970 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1969 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1968 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1967 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1966 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1965 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1964 Hanshin Tigers
 * 1963 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1962 Hanshin Tigers
 * 1961 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1960 Taiyo Whales
 * 1959 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1958 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1957 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1956 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1955 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1954 Chunichi Dragons
 * 1953 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1952 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1951 Yomiuri Giants
 * 1950 Shochiku Robins

Climax Series winners

 * 2023 Hanshin Tigers
 * 2022 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2021 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2020 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2019 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2018 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 2017 Yokohama DeNA BayStars
 * 2016 Hiroshima Toyo Carp
 * 2015 Tokyo Yakult Swallows
 * 2014 Hanshin Tigers
 * 2013 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2012 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2011 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2010 Chunichi Dragons
 * 2009 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2008 Yomiuri Giants
 * 2007 Chunichi Dragons

Most Valuable Pitcher

 * See: Best Nine Award

title: Central League


text:
Aksi

Aksi (also known as Väike-Prangli (Little Prangli) or Äksi) (Lilla Wrangelsö) is an Estonian island in the Gulf of Finland with an area of 59 hectares. Coordinates are 59.59972°N, 25.08972°W It forms an archipelago with nearby islands of Prangli and Keri. Aksi belongs to Idaotsa village in Viimsi Parish, Harju County.

Aksi is a part of the Prangli Landscape Conservation Area. The island's northern end is stony, its southern end is sandy and covered with junipers and birches.

Aksi was inhabited from 1790 to 1953, when the last inhabitants were forced to leave by the Soviet border guard. Many had fled already in 1944, mainly to Sweden.

The family that lived there was Aksberg. There is a lighthouse which was built in 1986.

title: Aksi


text:
Talk:Piano Concerto No. 3 (Rachmaninoff)

Key of Second Movement
To whom it may concern:

In regard to the tonality of the beginning of the second movement before the piano enters, please just allow me to talk a bit here.

The key signature here in this introduction is for A major or F-sharp minor. However, according to what it actually sounds like (I have perfect pitch) to me and what I deduce from the chords in the complete score, it seems to be D minor instead, despite some chords that seems to be A major tonic". Unfortunately, I have not found any sources that support my view. Before my edits this article claimed the key as "F-sharp minor / D-flat major". But it seemingly comes out that this piece, whether begins in D minor, does not begin in F-sharp minor, which is why I made the edit to the article page.

Could anyone help me out? Your help will be greatly appreciated.

Christopher2625649908 (talk) 10:21, 24 July 2016 (UTC)

 * The second movement indeed begins (and ends) in D minor. JBritnell (talk) 11:33, 24 May 2021 (UTC)

'Selected recordings' revisited
The 'Selected recordings' section has got ridiculously long (35 entries), and there is no obvious criterion for inclusion. I would suggest simply saying the the concerto has been recorded many times (Amazon currently lists about 130, though some of those may be duplicates), with mention of the first recording, with Horowitz as soloist, and the composer's own recording. I'll do this in a few days unless anyone has a better idea. (For comparison, the article for the second concerto has no 'recordings' section at all.) AndrewWTaylor (talk) 09:46, 10 July 2017 (UTC)
 * ✅ Toddst1 (talk) 05:36, 15 March 2018 (UTC)
 * A shorter, but even more arbitrary list had rematerialized. I have expunged it. JBritnell (talk) 21:37, 21 May 2021 (UTC)

Inappropriate reference
A long-standing citation on this page was to a 2009 concert review (of Bronfman playing the concerto in Baltimore), which not only lacked any particular authority, but also contained virtually no useful information about the concerto. I can't imagine why it was ever chosen as a source, and I have removed it.

This review was cited twice in the article, apparently at random, since the claims which it purportedly supported were matters which it didn't touch on in any way. One of these claims was that the ossia cadenza is played much more frequently than the other; I suspect this statement is simply false, so I have removed it. (It is true that the ossia generates much more traffic on Youtube, but that is not quite the same thing.) Of course, if anyone can support the claim with proper evidence, then they are welcome to reinstate it.

 * [Edit: Quite by chance, I have found the likely derivation of this claim, a Masters thesis from 1975. But the ultimate source may be Culshaw's book, published in 1950. The whole thing puzzles me a little, but I don't have a copy of Culshaw to verify, and it doesn't matter anyway.]

The second claim is that the concerto ends with a four-note motif which is to be found in various other works by Rachmaninoff. This one is true of course, but I have no suitable reference to hand. I have simply left the claim unsupported in the article, in the hope that someone will more readily be able to add an appropriate citation. (I will dig one up eventually if nobody else does.)

The references generally could use some work, which I will try to find time for. JBritnell (talk) 04:01, 23 May 2021 (UTC)

 * Well I can agree at least that the references need some work. — Dave12121212 ◎ 06:07, 14 November 2021 (UTC)
 * I'll take care of that (hopefully along with the whole article), maybe when WP:TCC starts. It's probably the most neglected detail of this article. Wretchskull (talk) 18:19, 8 April 2022 (UTC)


text:
Talk:Dragon (Middle-earth)

Content Removal
The expansions are based on a piece I did for Everything2 some time ago. --Mirv 03:48, 26 Nov 2003 (UTC)

Pardon me, I know nothing of this. The article says one class of dragons have only front legs. I presume it should say they have only hind legs (plus maybe wings).

Paul, in Saudi

 * Front legs is right I think, the published descriptions make reference to the dragons dragging themselves along the ground rather than walking. Stan 17:27, 21 Jan 2004 (UTC)

Hi, I think it might be a good idea to merge the articles about individual dragons with this one. They are quite stubby and may be there's not much more to say about them. What do you think? Lady Tenar 01:21, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

 * The other reason to have separate articles is if there are lots of links to them, and you don't want to make the reader wade through a long article to answer a simple question. By that standard, only Smaug and Glaurung can justify their own articles - which makes sense because they are the only two "personalities" among the dragons mentioned in Tolkien. Stan 01:38, 22 Feb 2004 (UTC)

removed:

The dragons that the Ringwraiths rode were a type of Wyvern. They had legs and wings but no forelegs. They could not breath fire but the screeches they let out were high enough in pitch that they caused paralysis and instant fear. The Witch King's dragon was the leader of the Nine dragons and the most powerful. It is said that this dragon was strong enough to smash the walls of Minas Tirith with its claws. The claws were about a foot long and razor sharp and there were 4 of these on both feet of the dragons. Three toes pointed forward and one toe backward much like a bird's foot does.

The dragons however were rather weak and if a spear was thrown right, the dragon would die. Also the Witch King's dragon was beheaded by Eowyn as it tried to kill her grandfather or father I'm not sure which. The dragons had HUGE fangs and these fangs were said to have venom.

end removed

Why I removed it: —Charles P. (Mirv) 21:08, 9 May 2005 (UTC)
 * These were called fell beasts, not dragons.
 * They might have resembled wyverns but they were never named as such.
 * I believe the fear and paralysis were caused by the Nazgul, not their mounts.
 * The Witch-King's mount was not, in any description, different from the others.
 * If it was strong enough to smash the walls of Minas Tirith, why did they even bother with a siege?
 * The two that are killed were killed with an arrow and a sword, not a spear.
 * Theoden is Eowyn's uncle.
 * Who says their fangs are venomous?

Proposed Move

 * The following discussion is an archived debate of the . Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

move. — Nightst a  llion  (?) 09:56, 9 March 2006 (UTC) Please see the relevant discussion at Talk:Elves (Middle-earth). savidan(talk) (e@) 09:45, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

 * The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page. No further edits should be made to this section.

Dragon size
At least one anonymous user, represented by a few different IP addresses, has been adding information about dragon size - which as far as I am aware isn't present in the books. I have to ask him/her, where are you getting this from? David Day? If so, he is actually unreliable - read this - http://tolkien.slimy.com/essays/DayBooks.html Uthanc 19:59, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

Two dragons from the game
There are 2 dragons from the game 's of the lord of the rings, not of tolkien, but from Electronic arts and codemasters: Drogoth ( The batle for middle-eart 2) and the dragon of Helegoth (LOTRO)

Origin of the Dragons
This article states that

''The dragons were created by Morgoth during the First Age, when Glaurung first appeared. It is stated in The Children of Húrin that they are great spirits. This means that they must be fallen Maiar (although some of Tolkien's earlier works, such as The Silmarillion, suggest that they were bred from a corrupted stock; see Glaurung).[2] Dragons were capable of breeding on their own, and in later ages the Withered Heath was purportedly their spawning ground.''

This is both misleading and self contradicting, If the dragons where fallen Maiar then Melkor did not "create" them. If Melkor did create then he would not have had the power to grant self awareness to his creations creations.. The dragon's therefore would have stopped moving when Morgoth's thought was not with them.

It is highly feasable that Glaurung was a fallen Maiar and the rest of the species spread from him, in the same way the Shelob and the spiders of Mirkwood were offspring of Ungoliant and Melian the Maiar gave birth to Luthien, but this is again just speculation. Carl Sixsmith (talk) 08:42, 18 October 2008 (UTC)

 * I've gone ahead and removed this speculation, since this comment is a year old and there has been no objection. The Maiar claim is original research, and without it the "great spirit" statement doesn't need to be there, nor does the parenthetical.  This section needs some work, and maybe I'll get around to that.  At the very least it should mention when the winged dragons first appeared. Silpion (talk) 04:13, 8 November 2009 (UTC)

Use of "Worm" in popular culture
I read here that "worm", as used to describe a type of modern virus, originates from Smaug the worm. Can this be inserted into the section about the Dragons' influence or legacy? Ykerzner (talk) 17:02, 10 July 2009 (UTC)
 * The link you've given doesn't say that all, and the link to "great worm" of Tolkien are tenuous. The same site in fact gives an origin for "worm" (correctly) to tapeworms. http://www.catb.org/jargon/html/W/worm.html  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 38.97.97.99 (talk) 19:07, 24 March 2016 (UTC)

In Universe
The sections on Ancalagon are terribly fan crufty. Carl Sixsmith (talk) 16:23, 19 March 2010 (UTC)

Present tense
As per WP:INUNIVERSE, the present tense should be used for everything within the plot. Using the past tense for some parts suggests that we are at a certain point in the story, which we aren't. So that's why I've changed so much wording to be in the present tense, such as "The dragons are created in the First Age." Spock of Vulcan (talk) 18:59, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Please see consensus at project. Middle-earth articles are written in past tense. 19:29, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

 * Sorry about that! I wasn't aware that a separate standard had been established for Middle-earth. Thanks for the tip. :) Spock of Vulcan (talk) 19:39, 14 November 2010 (UTC)

The dragons were created by Morgoth
The article says "The dragons were created by Morgoth". How is this consistent with Morgoth not being able to create new life from nothing (see Orc (Middle-earth) and Flame Imperishable)? --79.40.133.176 (talk) 14:49, 26 February 2012 (UTC) I always take these references to "created" or "bred" by either Morgoth or Sauron to mean corrupted or mutated. By means of breeding or other physical and magical means. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 172.222.226.248 (talk) 06:58, 2 May 2013 (UTC)
 * The history of the dragons is conflicting in the original text, in some works Morgoth created the evil creatures (dragons, trolls, orcs etc) that was changed later in writings when Morgoth became unable to generate life itself. Some of these self-contradictory histories have made it into different published works. The article does need clarifying to make these points I think. GimliDotNet (talk) 15:11, 26 February 2012 (UTC)
 * I've changed the verbiage to "bred" from "created" as I had heard of that terminology being used regarding evil characters inability to create. I got this impression during my viewing of the LOTR extended DVD edition. Breeding something is not the same as creating something. Nonetheless, I am uncertain if that solves the disputed terminology. Stylteralmaldo (talk) 00:55, 9 December 2012 (UTC)

title: Talk:Dragon (Middle-earth)


text:
Pacific League

The Pacific League (パシフィック・リーグ), or Pa League (パ・リーグ), or the Persol Pacific League (パーソル パシフィック・リーグ), due to sponsorship reasons, is one of the two professional baseball leagues constituting Nippon Professional Baseball in Japan. The winner of the league championship competes against the winner in the Central League for the annual Japan Series. It currently consists of six teams from around Japan.

History
The circuit was founded as the Taiheiyo Baseball Union (太平洋野球連盟, Taiheiyo Yakyu Renmei) in 1949 (the name changing to its current form in 1980). Daiei Stars owner Masaichi Nagata was the first president of the Pacific League.

The league began with seven teams: four holdovers from the previous iteration, the Japanese Baseball League—the Hankyu Braves, the Nankai Hawks, the Daiei Stars, and the Tokyu Flyers—and three new teams—the Kintetsu Pearls, the Mainichi Orions, and the Nishitetsu Clippers.

In 1954, an eighth Pacific League team was founded, the Takahashi Unions, to increase the number of teams to eight. Although the team was stocked with players from the other Pacific League teams, the Unions struggled from the outset and finished in the second division every season. In 1957, the Unions were merged with the Daiei Stars to form the Daiei Unions (and again bringing the number of Pacific League teams down to seven). In their first season, the Unions finished in last place, $43 1/2$ games out of first. In 1958, the Unions merged with the Mainichi Orions to form the Daimai Orions. This enabled the Pacific League to shrink from the ungainly seven-team arrangement to six teams.

Fujio Nakazawa, a former player and television commentator, became the PL's first full-time president in 1959, serving through 1965.

From 1973 to 1982, the Pacific League employed a split season, with the first-half winner playing against the second-half winner in a mini-playoff to determine its champion.

Beginning in 1975, the Pacific League began using the designated hitter (DH), as in the American League in Major League Baseball. During interleague play (adopted in 2005), the DH is used in Pacific League teams' home games.

After the 2004 Nippon Professional Baseball season and, the Orix BlueWave and the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes merged to form the Orix Buffaloes. A franchise was granted to internet shopping company Rakuten and the city of Sendai, forming the Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles to fill the void caused by the merger.

Also since 2004, a three-team playoff system was introduced in the Pacific League (Pacific League Championship Series). The teams with the second- and third-best records play in the three-game first stage, with the winner advancing to a best-of-six final against the top team (the Pacific League pennant winner is granted a 1 game advantage in the Final Stage). The winner becomes the representative of the Pacific League to the Japan Series.

Since the Pacific League won every Japan Series after introducing this system, an identical system was introduced to the Central League in 2007, and the post-season intra-league games were renamed the "Climax Series" in both leagues. Player statistics and drafting order based on team records are not affected by these postseason games.

Pacific League pennant winners
* From 2004 to 2006 the winner of the play-offs was considered Pacific League Champion, afterwards the regular season champion again.

Most Valuable Pitcher

 * See: Best Nine Award

title: Pacific League


text:
List of cities in Senegal

This is a list of cities in Senegal organised by population. It includes all cities with an estimated population of over 10,000 people.

Other settlements
• Agnam-Goly

• Balandine

• Bapate

• Bembou

• Bessir

• Boukitingho

• Cap Skirring

• Guédiawaye

• Kidira

• Pikine

• Podor

• Yoff

title: List of cities in Senegal