title: Pharisees

text: However, according to E.P. Sanders, Jesus' actions are actually similar to and consistent with Jewish beliefs and practices of the time, as recorded by the Rabbis, that commonly associate illness with sin and healing with forgiveness. Jews (according to E.P. Sanders) reject the New Testament suggestion that the healing would have been critical of, or criticized by, the Pharisees as no surviving Rabbinic source questions or criticizes this practice, and the notion that Pharisees believed that "God alone" could forgive sins is more of a rhetorical device than historical fact. Another argument from Sanders is that, according to the New Testament, Pharisees wanted to punish Jesus for healing a man's withered hand on Sabbath. Despite the Mishna and Gemara being replete with restrictions on healing on the Sabbath (for example, Mishna Shabbat, 22:6), E.P. Sanders stated that no Rabbinic rule has been found according to which Jesus would have violated Sabbath.


title: Pharisees

text: Paula Frederiksen and Michael J. Cook believe that those passages of the New Testament that are seemingly most hostile to the Pharisees were written sometime after the destruction of Herod's Temple in 70 CE. Only Christianity and Pharisaism survived the destruction of the Temple, and the two competed for a short time until the Pharisees emerged as the dominant form of Judaism . When many Jews did not convert, Christians sought new converts from among the Gentiles.


title: Pharisees

text: Some scholars have found evidence of continuous interactions between Jewish-Christian and rabbinic movements from the mid to late second century to the fourth century.


title: David Draiman

text: David Michael Draiman (; born March 13, 1973) is an American singer and songwriter. Noted for his distorted, operatic, baritone voice and percussive singing style, he is best known as the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Disturbed since 1996. He has written some of the band's most successful singles, such as "Stupify", "Down with the Sickness", "Indestructible", and "Inside the Fire". In 2006, he was ranked at No. 42 on the "Hit Parader" list of "Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time". During Disturbed's hiatus from 2011 to 2015, he worked on an industrial metal project with Geno Lenardo, which was later named Device. They released one self-titled album in 2013. Disturbed returned with the album "Immortalized" in 2015 and "Evolution" in 2018.


title: David Draiman

text: David Michael Draiman was born to Jewish parents in the Brooklyn borough of New York City on March 13, 1973. His father, YJ, had worked as a real estate developer and small-business owner before he was arrested for embezzlement and sent to prison when Draiman was 12 years old. YJ would later become a candidate in the races for Mayor of Los Angeles in 2013, 2017, and 2022. Draiman's brother, Benjamin, is an ambient musician who lives in Israel. His grandmother Ziona is a Yemenite Jew whose family immigrated to Israel in the early 1900s.


title: David Draiman

text: While not personally observant of their Jewish faith, Draiman's parents sent him to Orthodox schools, where he believed he was on the path to receiving rabbinic ordination. He frequently spent time in Israel during his early life. He attended five Jewish day schools, including Valley Torah High School in Los Angeles, where he formed his first band; Fasman Yeshiva High School in Skokie Illinois, a near north suburb of Chicago; and the Wisconsin Institute for Torah Study in Milwaukee. During his freshman year at the latter, he was asked to leave as he "rebelled against the conformity" and "just wanted to be a normal teenage kid", adding that he "couldn't really stomach the rigorous religious requirements of the life [there]". He has admitted to being "a bit resentful" about his time at Jewish day schools, but nevertheless became trained as a hazzan (cantor) and encouraged his family to observe Shabbat.


title: David Draiman

text: Draiman later enrolled at Ida Crown Jewish Academy in Chicago, and graduated from high school in 1991. From 1991 to 1992, he became romantically involved with a girl who used heroin and eventually killed herself, which would inspire the Disturbed song "Inside the Fire". At the age of 18, on New Year's Day 1992, he attempted to kill himself but says that he instead woke up later to find himself nearly frozen to death underneath a parked 1972 Oldsmobile Cutlass. After detoxing, he described having a "moment of clarity" and never used heroin again. After high school, he spent a year studying at the Yeshivas Neveh Zion in Kiryat Ye'arim on the outskirts of Jerusalem.


title: David Draiman

text: After returning to the U.S. in 1992, Draiman commenced pre-law studies at Loyola University Chicago. In 1996, he graduated with a BA in Political Science and Government, Philosophy, and Business Administration. Initially considering offers to study at law school, he realized that criminal defense law was the only area of law that interested him, which made him unwilling to pursue law because he knew he would not be able to "really look at [himself] in the mirror and say 'I'm going to lie for a living and protect criminals'". During his university studies, he also worked as a bank teller and in phone sales. After graduating, he worked as an administrative assistant in a healthcare facility. A year later, he earned an administrator's license and ran his own healthcare facility for five years before joining Disturbed. Leaving that position strained his relationship with his grandfather, who was a traditional Hasidic Jew.


title: David Draiman

text: Draiman became the lead vocalist of the heavy metal band Disturbed when its original lead singer left in 1996, two years after it had been formed under a different name. He auditioned and was asked to join the band after answering an advertisement the other members had placed in a local music publication in Chicago, which he later revealed was one of around 20 auditions for other bands he had attended that month. Guitarist Dan Donegan said of Draiman's audition, "You know, out of all the singers that we had talked to or auditioned, he was the only singer who was ready to go with originals. And that impressed me, just to attempt that. After a minute or two, he just starts banging out these melodies that were huge... I'm playing my guitar and I'm grinning from ear to ear. [...] I was so psyched. Chill up my spine."


title: David Draiman

text: Draiman has written some of Disturbed's most successful singles, such as "Stupify", "Down with the Sickness", "Indestructible", and "Inside the Fire". In 2006, he was ranked at No. 42 on the "Hit Parader" list of "Top 100 Metal Vocalists of All Time".


title: David Draiman

text: During Disturbed's hiatus from 2011 to 2015, Draiman worked on an industrial metal project with Geno Lenardo, which was later named Device. They released one self-titled album in 2013. Disturbed returned with the album "Immortalized" in 2015 and "Evolution" in 2018.


title: David Draiman

text: Draiman has said of his influences, "The first record I ever bought was Kiss' "Destroyer". And those classic bands like Black Sabbath were my first loves. [...] I focused on the seminal metal bands like Metallica, Iron Maiden, Pantera and Queensrÿche. But I could also appreciate the hair metal bands – When you hear Whitesnake, you can't deny their greatness. Then I went in the direction of punk and new wave, groups like the Sex Pistols, The Ramones, The Misfits and later The Smiths and The Cure – that was my '80s. [...] And then when the grunge revolution happened, it was like a wakeup call. I'll never forget getting my first Nirvana, Soundgarden and Alice in Chains records."


title: David Draiman

text: On September 25, 2011, Draiman married model and actress Lena Yada. Their son was born in September 2013. He was born three weeks premature, and the birth took 23 hours of labor.


title: David Draiman

text: Draiman said of his political views in 2015, "I'm liberal about everything that is issue-based as far as ideology, but I'm also of the opinion of a very small government. I don't agree with the fiscal policies of the Democrats, but I certainly don't agree with the right-wing craziness of the Republicans." He supported Bernie Sanders' 2016 presidential campaign. He has also described himself as "a very, very strong supporter of Israel forever and for our people". In 2019, he described Pink Floyd member Roger Waters and other activists seeking to boycott Israel for human rights abuses as "Nazi comrades".


title: Father Ted

text: Father Ted is a sitcom created by Irish writers Graham Linehan and Arthur Mathews and produced by British production company Hat Trick Productions for Channel 4. It aired over three series from 21 April 1995 until 1 May 1998, including a Christmas special, for a total of 25 episodes. It aired on Nine Network (series 1) and ABC Television (series 2 and 3) in Australia, and on TV2 in New Zealand.


title: Father Ted

text: Set on the fictional Craggy Island, a remote location off Ireland's west coast, "Father Ted" stars Dermot Morgan as Father Ted Crilly, alongside fellow priests Father Dougal McGuire (Ardal O'Hanlon) and Father Jack Hackett (Frank Kelly). Dishonourably exiled on the island by Bishop Leonard Brennan (Jim Norton) for various reasons, the priests live together in the parochial house with their housekeeper Mrs Doyle (Pauline McLynn). The show subverts parodies of low-brow humour as it portrays nuanced themes of loneliness, agnosticism, existentialism and purgatory experienced by its title character; this deeper meaning of the show has been much acclaimed.


title: Father Ted

text: "Father Ted" won several British Academy Television Awards—including twice for Best Comedy Series, and remains a popular sitcom in the UK and Ireland. In a 2001 Channel 4 poll, Dougal was ranked fifth on their list of the 100 Greatest TV Characters. In 2019, "Father Ted" was named the second-greatest British sitcom (after "Fawlty Towers)" by a panel of comedy experts for "Radio Times".


title: Father Ted

text: The show follows the misadventures of three Irish Roman Catholic priests who live in a parish on the fictional Craggy Island, located off the west coast of Ireland. Father Ted Crilly, Father Dougal McGuire and Father Jack Hackett live chaotically together in Craggy Island's parochial house, along with their housekeeper Mrs Doyle, who always wants to serve them tea.


title: Father Ted

text: The three priests answer to Bishop Len Brennan, who has banished them to Craggy Island as punishment for different incidents in their past: Ted for alleged financial impropriety (apparently involving some money "resting" in his account and a child being deprived of a visit to Lourdes so that Ted could go to Las Vegas), Dougal for an event only referred to as the "Blackrock Incident" (resulting in "many nuns' lives [being] irreparably damaged"), and Jack for his alcoholism and womanising, particularly for an unspecified incident at a wedding in Athlone.


title: Father Ted

text: The show revolves around the priests' lives on Craggy Island, sometimes dealing with matters of the church but more often dealing with Father Ted's schemes to either resolve a situation with the parish or other Craggy Island residents, or to win games of one-upmanship against his enemy, Father Dick Byrne of the nearby Rugged Island parish.


title: Father Ted

text: "Father Ted" ran for three series from 1995 to 1998, including a Christmas special. A total of 25 episodes were produced.


title: Father Ted

text: Linehan and Mathews first met while working at "Hot Press". In the late 1980s, Mathews, Paul Woodfull and Kieran Woodfull formed The Joshua Trio, a U2 tribute band. The trio began writing comedy sketches to accompany their act. Mathews created the Father Ted character for his short-lived stand-up routine. Before The Joshua Trio played at gigs, Mathews would occasionally come on-stage as Father Ted and tell jokes involving his great friend, Father Dougal McGuire.


title: Father Ted

text: In 1991, Mathews left his job at "Hot Press" and moved into Linehan's London home. Over the next three to four years, they worked on rough ideas for shows while at the same time writing for sketch shows such as "The All New Alexei Sayle Show" and "The Fast Show". One of these ideas was for a comedy mockumentary series called "Irish Lives", with six episodes, each focusing on a different character living somewhere in Ireland. They scripted an episode centring on a priest named Father Ted Crilly, who visits his friends in the seminary in Maynooth College. Producer Geoffrey Perkins suggested that the episode's concept be dramatised and rewritten as a sitcom.


title: Father Ted

text: In the January 1994 issue of In Dublin (Vol 19, No2), Mathews and Linehan told Damian Corless, who had initially introduced the pair to each other, of their work in progress, describing Ted as "basically a nice man", Dougal as "nice but really stupid" and Jack as "a hideous creature". Linehan revealed: "They've all been sent to this isolated place called Craggy Island because they're crap priests." Mathews elaborated: "They've each a terrible secret which is why they've been banished to this place, and the terrible thing is that they can't get away from each other. Obviously it's not entirely reality based." Mathews was originally intended to play Ted, but decided he lacked the acting ability the role required. Maurice O'Donoghue, who plays Father Dick in the series, was their second choice for the role of Ted, being the right age and having a similar look and lightness. Mathews always preferred Dermot Morgan; Linehan was initially reluctant, fearing he would play Ted the same as "Father Trendy", a character he played on the RTÉ television show "The Live Mike", but Morgan lobbied hard for the role and was cast.


title: Father Ted

text: The show was pitched directly to the UK's Hat Trick Productions and Channel 4 by the duo, contrary to rumours that RTÉ (the Irish national broadcaster) were originally offered the series but rejected it.


title: Father Ted

text: Three series and one Christmas special were aired. Declan Lowney directed the first two series and the Christmas special, while the third series was directed by Linehan (location scenes) and Andy De Emmony (studio scenes). In addition, Morgan and O'Hanlon hosted an hour of Comic Relief in character, during which Kelly and McLynn also made brief guest appearances. One day after the shooting of series three wrapped, Dermot Morgan died of a heart attack, aged 45. As a mark of respect, the third series was first broadcast a week later than originally planned.


title: Father Ted

text: The show was already scheduled to conclude with the third series prior to Morgan's death, as Morgan said that he did not want to continue playing the role of Father Ted for fear of being typecast: "I don't want to be the next Clive Dunn and end up playing the same character for years."


title: Father Ted

text: Following Morgan's death, the production company received calls from numerous agents and casting directors suggesting either new actors for the role of Ted or spin-offs without the character; Linehan and Mathews declined all offers.


title: Father Ted

text: In 1994, the writers asked alternative rock band Pulp to compose the theme music for "Father Ted", requesting a parody of a typical sitcom theme. When Pulp declined involvement, they contacted Neil Hannon, frontman of Northern Irish chamber pop band The Divine Comedy. Hannon's first effort, a jaunty composition, was rejected on Geoffrey Perkins's advice. Hannon composed a second theme, which the team found acceptable. This theme was recorded by Hannon and co-producer Darren Allison at The Jesus and Mary Chain's private studio. One of William Reid's guitars was selected by Allison and Hannon to carry the main tune, which was played by Hannon. Both themes were also reworked, with new lyrics, for inclusion on The Divine Comedy's 1996 album "Casanova": the final "Father Ted" theme became "Songs of Love", while Hannon's rejected theme became "A Woman of the World".


title: Father Ted

text: In 2010, Linehan discussed the dramatic effect this choice had on the tone of the series: "'Woman of the World' was kind of like a jaunty, plinky-plonky song, and we wanted that song. He [Hannon] gave us two choices: he gave us that, and 'Songs of Love', and we wanted the plinky-plonky song because our idea was we were making fun of sitcoms. We were saying, you know, we don't like sitcoms. This is a parody of sitcoms. This is a kind of satire on sitcoms. And I remember Geoffrey [Perkins] looking really glum and sad about this, you know? And then he said, 'Why do you want to make fun of your characters?' He said, 'People will love these characters.' And that was just a real revelation for me, and after that, whatever he said went, as far as I was concerned."


title: Father Ted

text: The Divine Comedy also contributed most of the show's original music, including the songs "Big Men in Frocks" (for the episode "Rock-a-Hula Ted"), "My Lovely Horse" and "The Miracle is Mine" (for "A Song for Europe"), and "My Lovely Mayo Mammy" (for "Night of the Nearly Dead"). Neil Hannon also provided Ted and Dougal's vocals in the dream sequence version of "My Lovely Horse", which was produced by Allison and Hannon, and later appeared as a B-side on the band's single "Gin Soaked Boy".


title: Father Ted

text: The interior scenes were recorded at the London Studios in front of a live studio audience, while exterior filming was at various locations in Ireland. Location work for "Father Ted" was done mostly in County Clare, including locations at Corofin, Ennis, Kilfenora, Ennistymon, and Kilnaboy. The Parochial House is McCormack's at Glenquin, on the Boston road from Kilnaboy. The cinema featured in "The Passion of St Tibulus" was the Ormonde Cinema, Greystones, County Wicklow and "The Field", the location for Funland in "'Good Luck, Father Ted'", is in Portrane, North County Dublin. The 'Very Dark Caves' featured in "The Mainland" were the Aillwee caves in the Burren, County Clare.


title: Father Ted

text: Some exterior shots for the episode "And God Created Woman" were filmed in Dún Laoghaire, South County Dublin. The opening sequence (including shots of the "Plassy" shipwreck) were filmed over Inisheer — the smallest of the Aran Islands.


title: Father Ted

text: The series is set in a humorously surreal world in which Ted is the only fully rounded normal character among "caricatures", according to Graham Linehan: "exaggerated-over-friendly, over-quiet, over-stupid, over-dull [...] they really only got one thing, they've got one job."


title: Father Ted

text: Embarrassment plays a role in many storylines, in a similar fashion to "Fawlty Towers". Linehan says, "if Ted is in a situation that is slightly embarrassing we get him out of it [...] by having him lying or cheating, basically digging a massive hole for himself". Arthur Mathews has described "Seinfeld" as a major influence on the comedy of "Father Ted", with himself and Linehan being "big fans" of the show. "Father Ted" also contains references to pop culture, and some film parodies, such as the episode "Speed 3".


title: Father Ted

text: Regarding the series's religious content, Linehan says "Ted doesn't have an anti-religious view of life, but a non-religious view. It's a job to him. He doesn't care about religion." While writing, he says the show's creators imagined Ted and Dougal as "just two people who happen to be [priests]".


title: Father Ted

text: "Father Ted" was met with critical acclaim and is one of the most popular sitcoms in Irish TV history. The Irish media frequently uses the series as a point of comparison in political stories.


title: Father Ted

text: In 1996 and 1999, the show won the BAFTA award for Best Comedy, while Morgan also won Best Comedy Performance. In 1995 the show won Best New TV Comedy at the British Comedy Awards, with O'Hanlon receiving Top TV Comedy Newcomer Award. At the 1996 British Comedy Awards the show won Top Channel 4 Sitcom Award, McLynn took the Top TV Comedy Actress award. In 1997 the show was given the Best Channel 4 Sitcom Award. It was also ranked at number 50 in the BFI's 2000 list of the 100 greatest British television programmes of the 20th century, the highest ranking Channel 4 production on the list. In 2004, it came 11th in the poll for Britain's Best Sitcom. In August 2012, Channel 4 viewers voted the series as the No 1 in "C4's 30 Greatest Comedy Shows".


title: Father Ted

text: Notable fans of the show include director Steven Spielberg, musicians Liam Gallagher, Madonna, Cher and Moby, actors Jim Carrey and Steve Martin, comedian Ricky Gervais, and wrestler Sheamus. Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees was buried with a copy of the DVD box set. Singer-songwriter Sinéad O'Connor is a fan, and attended the recording of the Christmas special. Irish musician Bono also requested to appear in the series.


title: Father Ted

text: In January 2007, a dispute arose between Inisheer and Inishmore over which island can claim to be Craggy Island, and thereby host a three-day Friends of Ted Festival. The dispute was settled by a five-a-side football match that February. Inishmore won 2–0 allowing them to use the title of Craggy Island until February 2008, while Inisheer was given the title of Rugged Island. The Friends of Ted Festival, better known as Ted Fest, has been held annually as a "Father Ted" fan convention since 2007.


title: Father Ted

text: In August 2020 An Post released a set of commemorative postage stamps, each with a catchphrase from the series on a background of the parochial house's lurid wallpaper, in a booklet listing Mrs Doyle's guesses for the name of Father Todd Unctious.


title: Father Ted

text: Several quotes from the series have entered the popular lexicon, such as "These are "small", but the ones out there are "far away". Small. Far away.", "Down with this sort of thing", and "I hear you're a racist now, Father".


title: Father Ted

text: On 1 January 2011, Channel 4 dedicated a night of programmes to celebrate the show's 15th anniversary year. This included "Father Ted: Unintelligent Design", a documentary on the show's influences, and "Small, Far Away: The World of Father Ted", a documentary revisiting the show's history with the writers and many of the surviving cast (Pauline McLynn declined to take part).


title: Father Ted

text: In 2001, Pauline McLynn reprised her role as Mrs Doyle in a run of advertisements for the UK's Inland Revenue, reminding people to get their taxes in on time with her catchphrase from the programme ("Go on, go on, go on..."). It was voted in an Adwatch poll of 1,000 people as the year's worst advertisement.


title: Father Ted

text: Later in 2001, Ardal O'Hanlon returned to the role of Father Dougal for a series of PBS advertisements to coincide with "Father Ted"s American broadcast; these segments were included on later DVD releases as "Fundraising with Father Dougal".


title: Father Ted

text: In 2012, Frank Kelly made a brief appearance as Father Jack on an episode of "The One Show" with Graham Norton.


title: Father Ted

text: In 2014, guest star Ben Keaton returned to the role of Father Austin Purcell, performing a stand-up routine and hosting the pub quiz "Arse Biscuits" in-character. In 2015, he launched the spin-off web series "Cook Like a Priest".


title: Father Ted

text: In February 2016, Over The Top Wrestling marked the anniversary of Morgan's death with "Ah Ted", an event held in Dublin's Tivoli Variety Theatre. During the main-event tag-team match between The Lads From the Flats and The Kings of the North, Patrick McDonnell, Joe Rooney and Michael Redmond reprised their roles as Eoin McLove, Father Damo Lennon and Father Paul Stone respectively. McLove entered the ring first, withstanding one wrestler's attack on his crotch because he has "no willy", but was soon attacked by Father Damo, who brought the whistle he stole from Benson. Father Stone served as a special guest referee, performing a three-count so slow that one wrestler kicked out after two. In 2017, Rooney appeared as Father Damo in the video for Brave Giant's "The Time I Met the Devil", which follows him on the way to give Mass after a night of alcohol and sex.


title: Father Ted

text: Since the end of the series, several attempts to remake "Father Ted" have been reported, but none have yet materialised.


title: Father Ted

text: In July 2003, it was announced that the show would be remade for the American market. The remake would be scripted by Spike Feresten, who previously wrote for US sitcoms "Seinfeld" and "The Simpsons". Ferensten stated: "I was raised Catholic and this show just felt right to me. The essence of the show is about men who are also priests and, as men, they have many foibles." Hat Trick founders Denise O'Donoghue and Jimmy Mulville were set to produce. The US production company was Pariah Productions, which previously adapted "The Kumars at No. 42" for an American audience.


title: Father Ted

text: In March 2004, Supanet Limited reported that an American remake was in development. This version would be set on a fictional island off the coast of New York. Steve Martin and Graham Norton would reportedly play Ted and Dougal. Martin had not been expected to take the role because of his stature, but agreed because he was a fan of the original series, and would reportedly be paid £500,000 per episode. Norton was cast based on his popularity with American audiences, and in reference to his appearance as Father Noel Furlong in the original series.


title: Father Ted

text: In November 2007, a separate American remake was announced. Rather than Craggy Island, this version would be set in an unfortunate fishing village in New England. American actor John Michael Higgins was cast as Ted, but expressed concerns about the show's religious themes: "The English have a very robust history of being unkind about religion. We don't have that in our country, we're frightened of it. It's basically that you guys are doing an Irish joke also, we don't have that. So I'll be Father Ted, we'll see how it goes." Filming was scheduled to begin in January 2008.


title: Father Ted

text: In January 2015, Linehan said that there had been "a few attempts" by US broadcasters to remake the show, including one which would have been set in Boston – an idea Linehan considered "ridiculous".


title: Father Ted

text: In an interview with "Radio Times" in January 2015, Linehan said that he wanted to revive "Father Ted" as a musical stage production. He stated that he would never revive the television series, "because of the risk you poison people's memories of the original", but that the completely new format would make the project worthwhile. He mentioned the possibility of a dance number with "spinning cardinals". He said that the musical would have to reference the Catholic child abuse scandals, saying, "The jokes would have to have a little bit more edge, because you just can't ignore this stuff." Mathews was "not as convinced" of the musical idea, though Linehan insisted it could work.


title: Father Ted

text: In December, Mathews said that he and Paul Woodfull were developing a Joshua Trio musical and a show focusing on a "Father Michael Cleary-type character", and that the "Father Ted" musical may follow. He expressed concerns that it would "dilute the product" or be seen as a "cash-in", but said that he believed there was an audience for the project. In April 2017, Linehan said that the musical would draw inspiration from "The Book of Mormon", and would "go for the jugular ... You get all the things people loved about it, all the innocence and all the sweetness, but introduce a harder edge." Linehan also said that, being a special event, the musical would need to focus on a "world-shaking" story, possibly with Ted becoming Pope due to "some weird succession thing".


title: Father Ted

text: In June 2018, Linehan announced that "Pope Ted: The Father Ted Musical" was nearing completion, with a script by Linehan and Mathews. Linehan said, "It's the real final episode of "Father Ted ..." This was the right idea. Arthur and I have been laughing our arses off while writing it. Just like the old days." The Divine Comedy frontman Neil Hannon, who wrote the television show's music, composed the music.


title: Father Ted

text: In March 2022, Linehan said the musical had been cancelled by producers following the controversy over his views on transgender rights. He said that the musical was "ready to go", with a completed story and songs, but "just because a group of people have decided that anybody who speaks up against this ideology is evil, [the producers have] just kind of rolled over for those people. No one is standing up for me." Hannon, a longtime friend of Linehan's, said the project was difficult and said about the controversy around Linehan: "It's been difficult to watch what's happened. I believe in free speech, but I also very much believe in people's perfect right to remain completely silent on issues that they don't feel they can speak on. And that's all I want to say about it."


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Washington Nationals are an American professional baseball team based in Washington, D.C.. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the National League (NL) East division. From 2005 to 2007, the team played in RFK Stadium while a new stadium was being built. In 2008, they moved in to Nationals Park, located on South Capitol Street in the Southeast quadrant of D.C., near the Anacostia River.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals are the eighth major league franchise to be based in Washington, D.C., and the first since 1971. The current franchise was founded in 1969 as the Montreal Expos as part of a four-team expansion. After a failed contraction plan, the Expos were purchased by MLB, which sought to relocate the team to a new city. Washington, D.C. was chosen in 2004, and the Nationals were established in 2005 as the first MLB franchise relocation since the third Washington Senators moved to Texas in 1971.


title: Washington Nationals

text: While the team initially struggled after moving to Washington, the Nationals had considerable success throughout the 2010s. The team had two back-to-back first overall picks in the MLB draft in 2009 and 2010, where they drafted Stephen Strasburg and Bryce Harper. The team secured their first playoff berth and first division title in 2012. They won the National League East again in 2014, 2016, and 2017, but failed to advance past the NLDS each time. In 2019, the team advanced to the World Series and defeated the Houston Astros in seven games to earn their first championship.


title: Washington Nationals

text: As of 2021, the franchise's overall win–loss record is 4,068–4,280 (). Since moving to Washington, D.C., their overall win–loss record is 1,313–1,337 ()


title: Washington Nationals

text: Multiple short-lived baseball franchises, including two named the Nationals, played in Washington with the National Association in the 1870s. The first Washington Nationals team in a major league played in the American Association in 1884. Another Washington Nationals team also played in the Union Association during its only season in 1884. The first Washington Nationals of the National League played from 1886 to 1889.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Washington Statesmen played in the American Association in 1891, before jumping to the National League as the Senators the following season. The Washington Senators, who were often referred to as the Nationals, played in the National League from 1892 to 1899. They were followed in 1901 by another Washington Senators franchise — a charter member of the new American League — who were officially named the Washington Nationals from 1905 to 1955. In 1912, another Washington Senators team formed as one of eight teams of the United States Baseball League. But the league and the team folded after just over a month of play in 1912.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The first American League Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis after the 1960 season and became the Minnesota Twins. They were replaced in Washington by an expansion team, the second American League Senators franchise, which began play in 1961 and moved to Arlington, Texas, after the 1971 season to become the Texas Rangers.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Montreal Expos were part of the 1969 Major League Baseball expansion, which included the Seattle Pilots (now the Milwaukee Brewers), Kansas City Royals, and San Diego Padres. Based in Montreal, the Expos were the first Major League team in Canada. They were named after the Expo 67 World's Fair.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The majority-share owner was Charles Bronfman, a major shareholder in Seagram. The Expos' initial home was Jarry Park. Managed by Gene Mauch, the team lost 110 games in their first season, coincidentally matching the Padres' inaugural win–loss record, and continued to struggle during their first decade with sub-.500 seasons.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Starting in 1977, the team's home venue was Montreal's Olympic Stadium, built for the 1976 Summer Olympics. Two years later, the team won a franchise-high 95 games, finishing second in the National League East. The Expos began the 1980s with a core group of young players, including catcher Gary Carter, outfielders Tim Raines and Andre Dawson, third baseman Tim Wallach, and pitchers Steve Rogers and Bill Gullickson. The team won its only division championship in the strike-shortened split season of 1981, ending its season with a three-games-to-two loss to the Los Angeles Dodgers in the National League Championship Series.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The team spent most of the 1980s in the middle of the NL East pack, finishing in third or fourth place in eight out of nine seasons from 1982 to 1990. Buck Rodgers was hired as manager before the 1985 season and guided the Expos to a .500 or better record five times in six years, with the highlight coming in 1987, when they won 91 games. They finished third, but were just four games behind the division-winning Cardinals.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Bronfman sold the team to a consortium of owners in 1991, with Claude Brochu as the managing general partner. Rodgers, at that time second only to Gene Mauch in number of Expos games managed, was replaced partway through the 1991 season. In May 1992, Felipe Alou, a member of the Expos organization since 1976, was promoted to manager, becoming the first Dominican-born manager in MLB history. Alou would become the leader in Expos games managed, while guiding the team to winning records, including 1994, when the Expos, led by a talented group of players including Larry Walker, Moisés Alou, Marquis Grissom and Pedro Martínez, had the best record in the major leagues until the 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike forced the cancellation of the remainder of the season. After the disappointment of 1994, Expos management began shedding its key players, and the team's fan support dwindled.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Brochu sold control of the team to Jeffrey Loria in 1999, but Loria failed to close on a plan to build a new downtown ballpark, and did not reach an agreement on television and English radio broadcast contracts for the 2000 season, reducing the team's media coverage.


title: Washington Nationals

text: After the 2001 season, MLB considered revoking the team's franchise, along with either the Minnesota Twins or the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. In November 2001, Major League Baseball's owners voted 28–2 to contract the league by two teams — according to various sources, the Expos and the Minnesota Twins, both of which reportedly voted against contraction. Subsequently, the Boston Red Sox were sold to a partnership led by John W. Henry, owner of the Florida Marlins. In order to clear the way for Henry's group to assume ownership of the Red Sox, Henry sold the Marlins to Loria, and MLB purchased the Expos from Loria. However, the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission, operator of the Metrodome, won an injunction requiring the Twins to play there in 2002. Because MLB was unable to revoke the Twins franchise, it was compelled to keep both the Twins and Expos as part of the regular season schedule. In the collective bargaining agreement signed with the Major League Baseball Players Association (MLBPA) in August 2002, contraction was prohibited until the end of the contract in 2006. By that time, the Expos had become the Washington Nationals and the Twins had made sufficient progress towards the eventual building of a new baseball-specific stadium that contraction was no longer on the agenda.


title: Washington Nationals

text: With contraction no longer an option for the immediate term, MLB began looking for a relocation site for the Expos. Some of the choices included: Oklahoma City; Washington, D.C.; San Juan, Puerto Rico; Monterrey, Mexico; Portland, Oregon; Northern Virginia (such as Arlington or Dulles); Norfolk, Virginia; Las Vegas; and Charlotte, North Carolina. Washington, D.C., and both Virginia locations emerged as the front-runners.


title: Washington Nationals

text: On September 29, 2004, MLB announced the Expos would move to Washington, D.C., in 2005. On November 15, a lawsuit by the former team owners against MLB and former majority owner Jeffrey Loria was struck down by arbitrators, bringing to an end all legal actions that would impede a move. The owners of the other MLB teams approved the move to Washington, D.C., in a 28–1 vote on December 3 (Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos cast the sole dissenting vote).


title: Washington Nationals

text: Although there was some sentiment to revive the name Senators when the Montreal Expos franchise moved to Washington in 2005, legal and political considerations factored into the choice of Nationals, a revival of the first American League franchise's official name used from 1901 to 1956. Politicians and others in the District of Columbia objected to the name Senators because the District of Columbia does not have voting representation in Congress. In addition, the Rangers still owned the rights to the Senators name, although the Nationals were able to acquire the rights to the curly "W" logo from the Rangers. This logo looked a lot like the Walgreens logo, but the drugstore chain has never sued.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Washington, D.C., mayor Anthony A. Williams supported the name "Washington Grays", in honor of the Negro-league team the Homestead Grays (1929–1950), which had been based in Pittsburgh, but played many of their home games in Washington. On November 21, 2004, the team's management chose the name "Washington Nationals". The club's official colors of red, white, and blue were revealed the next day.


title: Washington Nationals

text: As part of the relocation, the Nationals played their first three seasons at RFK Stadium until Nationals Park could be built. Nationals Park was completed in 2008, and the Nationals played their first home game there on March 30, 2008. The game was nationally televised on ESPN and former U.S. President George W. Bush threw out the first pitch. Ryan Zimmerman hit a walk-off home run to win the first game in the new stadium.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals' first game was played on April 4, 2005 at Citizens Bank Park in South Philadelphia against the Philadelphia Phillies, and the Phillies won the game 8-4. The Nationals finished their 2005 inaugural season at .500 with an 81-81 record. Its first draft pick as the Nationals was Ryan Zimmerman, a Virginia native, in the first round of the 2005 draft. Zimmerman made his MLB debut in 2005 and became one of the teams best players and the face of the franchise, playing his entire career with the Nationals.


title: Washington Nationals

text: When Ted Lerner took over the club in mid-2006, he hired Stan Kasten as team president. Kasten was widely known as the architect of the Atlanta Braves before and during their run of 14 division titles. Kasten was also the general manager or president of many other Atlanta-area sports teams, including the Atlanta Hawks and Atlanta Thrashers. "The Plan", as it became known, was a long-range rebuilding and restructuring of the team from the ground up. This plan included investing in the farm system and the draft, and having a suitable team to go along with their new stadium.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In the front office, the Nationals hired the well-respected former Arizona scouting director Mike Rizzo to be the vice president of baseball operations, second in charge under then-general manager Jim Bowden.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals finished in last place in four out of five years from 2006-2010, but began building the foundations of a contender with their first-overall draft picks of pitcher Stephen Strasburg (in 2009) and outfielder Bryce Harper (in 2010), as well as their sixth-overall draft pick of infielder Anthony Rendon (in 2011). Strasburg, arguably the most hyped prospect in baseball history, struck out 14 batters in an unprecedented Major League debut. In 2011, they signed Jayson Werth to the team's first big free agent contract. With a mix of homegrown players and players acquired via trade and free agency, the Nationals clinched their first playoff berth and first division title in 2012. Teenage phenom Harper was named NL Rookie of the Year, the youngest ever to win. The Nationals were knocked out of the 2012 NLDS by the St. Louis Cardinals in five games after the Cardinals took the lead with two outs in the top of the ninth of game 5. After missing the playoffs in 2013, they hired Matt Williams as manager and rebounded to win their second division title in 2014, but were eliminated in the 2014 NLDS by the San Francisco Giants. In 2014, they acquired shortstop prospect Trea Turner in a trade with the San Diego Padres, with Turner eventually becoming a major part of the Nationals' core. In 2015, the Nationals signed top free agent pitcher Max Scherzer to a 7-year, $210 million contract. That year, Harper had one of the greatest offensive seasons in MLB history, becoming the youngest player to win the NL MVP unanimously. However the Nationals missed the playoffs again, leading to Williams' firing. The team hired veteran manager Dusty Baker in 2016, and returned to the playoffs only to be eliminated by the Los Angeles Dodgers in the 2016 NLDS in five games. They won the NL East title in 2017, but were eliminated in the NLDS yet again after losing game 5 to the Chicago Cubs. Baker's contract was not renewed after the 2017 playoff loss, and the team hired Dave Martinez as their sixth manager in ten years.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2018, the All-Star Game was played at Nationals Park. 19-year-old phenom Juan Soto had an exceptional debut campaign, finishing 2nd in NL Rookie of the Year Voting. The Nationals failed to make the playoffs in 2018, finishing a disappointing second in a year they were expected to sail to the playoffs. After the 2018 season, superstar slugger Bryce Harper left the team via free agency, signing with the rival Philadelphia Phillies.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals began the 2019 season with a record of 19–31, with their projected chances of winning the World Series at that time being 1.5 percent. They then posted a 74–38 record over the remaining 112 games, finishing with an overall record of 93-69 and earning a spot in the 2019 National League Wild Card Game, which they won over the Milwaukee Brewers 4–3. In the NLDS, the Nationals defeated the Los Angeles Dodgers in five games, propelling them past the divisional round for the first time in franchise history. The Nationals then swept the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLCS, giving them their first NL pennant. The team then defeated the Houston Astros in game seven of the 2019 World Series, giving them their first World Series championship, with Strasburg being voted series MVP. The World Series was the first in MLB history that saw no team win a game at home, as the road team won all seven. The Nationals went a perfect 5-0 in elimination games during the playoffs, all of which were come-from-behind victories, the first team in MLB history to do so.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Franchise cornerstone Anthony Rendon left in free agency for the Los Angeles Angels after the 2019 season. The Nationals struggled in 2020, when the coronavirus pandemic led to the season being shortened to 60 games; the team finished 26-34 and missed the playoffs. After another disappointing start to the 2021 season, in which the team was under .500 at the trade deadline, GM Mike Rizzo disassembled much of the team, trading ace pitcher Max Scherzer and superstar shortstop Trea Turner to the Dodgers, among many other trades of starting players in exchange for prospects, signifying the start of a rebuilding process. Ryan Zimmerman, the longtime face of the franchise who had been with the team since its inaugural 2005 season, announced his retirement after the 2021 season, marking the end of the first era of Nationals baseball. On August 2, 2022, the Nationals traded 23-year-old superstar Juan Soto to the San Diego Padres after he turned down a 15-year, $440 million contract extension offer, which would have constituted the richest contract in baseball history. In doing so, the Nationals lost its franchise icon and one of the last integral players from the 2019 championship team. The Nationals received one of the largest prospect hauls in any single trade in baseball history in return, with the front office hoping that the elite prospects would form the core of the next championship team. After trading Soto and others, the Nationals finished the 2022 season with the worst record in baseball at 55-107.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2022, the Washington Post reported that the Lerner family was exploring a restructuring of the team's ownership, including the possibility of selling the team outright.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals' original home uniforms contained the team name and numbers in red with gold bevels and navy trim, and were paired with the all-red "curly W" cap. The road uniforms contained the city name and numbers in navy with gold bevels and red trim, and were paired with the all-navy "curly W" cap. The front letters of both uniforms formed a distinct bridge-like shape. This set was joined the following season by a red alternate uniform, which featured the interlocking "DC" in white with gold bevels and navy trim, as well as numbers in navy with gold bevels and white trim. The red alternates were paired with the all-red "DC" cap.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals sported two different sleeve patches with this set. In their inaugural season, the patch featured gold accents, the full team name and two gold stars on the outer navy circle, and the interlocking "DC" on the inner red circle. The patch was tweaked the following season, eliminating the team name in favor of nine gold stars and relegating red to trim color.


title: Washington Nationals

text: For the 2009 season, the Nationals kept the same home uniform but unveiled a new road and red alternate uniform, along with a roundel-less "DC" sleeve patch. The road uniform now featured a script rendition of the city name in front minus the gold bevels, with the letters now rendered in red with navy and gold trim. The red alternate replaced the "DC" logo with the "curly W" logo, and numbers changed to white with gold bevels and navy trim.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals unveiled a new uniform set starting in 2011. Gold was eliminated and the emphasis was on the "curly W" logo, which was prominently featured on the home and red alternate uniforms. The road all-navy cap was retired in a favor of a navy cap with red brim, and a new red cap with navy brim was added in 2013 for home games with the red alternates. The sleeve patch was updated to feature the primary roundel logo. Piping was added to the "curly W" uniforms.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2018 the Nationals released a navy alternate uniform, featuring a script rendition of the team name in white with red trim along with red numbers. The following season, the navy uniform proved to be a good-luck charm for the Nationals, as they went 11–3 while wearing the uniforms en route to winning the World Series. In 2020, a white version was added, with the script version of the team name in navy with red trim. Initially, the Nationals unveiled a pair of white-paneled and red-brimmed alternate caps: one in navy with the United States Capitol dome superimposed over a white block "W", and another in red with a navy block "W" superimposed over the silhouette of a pitcher. Both designs paid homage to the original Washington Senators (now Minnesota Twins) and the expansion Washington Senators (now Texas Rangers). However, only the "Capitol W" cap was used, and the "pitcher W" cap was not utilized on the field at all and immediately retired.


title: Washington Nationals

text: For most of the 2020 season, the Nationals wore gold-accented versions of the new white uniforms in celebration of their World Series championship, along with all-red caps with the gold "curly W" logo. The script white alternates made their on-field debut on the final regular season home game September 27 against the New York Mets, and were paired with the "Capitol W" cap (the red "curly W" batting helmets were used with this uniform). The Nationals did not wear their home and red alternate "curly W" uniforms throughout that shortened season. In 2021, the white alternates were also paired with the primary red "curly W" cap, though the alternate Capitol cap was still used occasionally.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Starting in 2022, the white alternate uniform with the "Nationals" script became the primary home uniform.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2009, the Nationals unveiled a navy alternate uniform for games that fell during Independence Day week. The uniform featured the "interlocking DC" logo rendered in the Stars and Stripes motif, along with white/red piping and white numbers with gold bevels and red trim. The original primary logo was added to the left sleeve, and a navy cap with red brim containing the aforementioned "DC flag" logo was used.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2011, the uniform was tweaked to feature the "curly W" in Stars and Stripes, along with updated logos and the removal of gold accents. The road navy cap was originally used with this uniform, but in 2016 it was replaced by a similar design, with the exception of the "curly W" which was now rendered in the Stars and Stripes. This design was used until 2019, during which the uniform was no longer exclusively worn on Independence Day week.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In 2017 a white version of the "Stars and Stripes" alternate was released; this one is paired with the navy-brimmed red cap featuring the "curly W" in Stars and Stripes.


title: Washington Nationals

text: As part of MLB's uniform deal with Nike, selected teams were given themed "City Connect" uniforms. The Nationals' version, unveiled in 2022, pay homage to the cherry blossoms that adorn Washington, D.C. in the spring. The design has a dark gray base with pink trim and printed cherry blossoms.


title: Washington Nationals

text: During the franchise's period in Montreal, the Montreal Expos retired three numbers in honor of four players, plus Jackie Robinson's number 42 which was retired throughout all Major League Baseball in 1997. Following the move to Washington, D.C., the numbers (except 42) were returned to circulation and remain in use , although the "Team History" section of the Nationals' website continues to refer to the numbers as "retired." When Washington wore Expos throwback jerseys on July 6, 2019, catcher Yan Gomes wore his usual number 10, even though the number was retired by the Expos for Andre Dawson and Rusty Staub.


title: Washington Nationals

text: After the Expos' departure from Montreal, the National Hockey League′s Montreal Canadiens hung a banner in Bell Centre honoring the Expos' retired numbers.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals retired Ryan Zimmerman's No. 11 on June 18, 2022, the first number retired by the Nationals.


title: Washington Nationals

text: On August 10, 2010, the Nationals unveiled a "Ring of Honor" at Nationals Park to honor National Baseball Hall of Fame members who had played "significant years" for the Washington Nationals, original Washington Senators (1901–1960), expansion Washington Senators (1961–1971), Homestead Grays, or Montreal Expos. In late August 2016, the team dropped the criterion that an inductee be a member of the National Baseball Hall of Fame, also opening membership to "anyone who has made a significant contribution to the game of baseball in Washington, D.C."; the first inductee under the revised criteria was Frank Howard.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals′ attempt to honor the Montreal-Washington franchise's entire history in the Ring of Honor, as well as by tracking Montreal-Washington franchise records, is not without controversy; it has been criticized as "an embodiment of the team’s desire to find history before it can make much." Although Nationals fans generally take little interest in the franchise's Montreal years, some do appreciate acknowledging that the franchise has a history that predates its arrival in Washington, and former Expo Tim Raines received a warm round of applause from fans at Nationals Park at his induction ceremony on August 28, 2017, even though he had never even visited Washington, D.C. before, and the closest baseball he played in the market was one game for Baltimore with his son at the end of 2001. Some Montreal Expos fans express appreciation that the Nationals are honoring the Expos, and Expos players inducted into the Ring of Honor have expressed gratitude that the Nationals chose to include them, especially with no MLB team in Montreal to honor their careers. However, few Nationals fans have taken an interest in franchise records, preferring to compare Nationals records with those of previous Washington MLB teams instead, and a segment of Nationals fans actively opposes the inclusion of Expos history into that of the Nationals, taking the view that the Montreal years are irrelevant to Washington and that the team made a complete break with its past and started anew when it arrived in Washington, inheriting the history of the two Washington Senators teams rather than that of the Expos. Similarly, Montreal Expos fans have taken little or no interest in the achievements of Nationals players, and some Expos fans strongly oppose the inclusion of former Expos in the Ring, taking the position that to do so is to co-opt the history of the Expos, which they say belongs solely in Montreal.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Observers also have noted that the admission of the first Nationals player to the Ring of Honor, Iván "Pudge" Rodríguez, although he was well-liked as a National, highlights another awkward aspect of the Ring of Honor's acceptance criteria, because Rodriguez's inclusion arose out of his admission to the National Baseball Hall of Fame based on his exploits for other teams, not out of anything he did during a 155-game, two-season stint with the Nationals at the end of his career in years in which the Nationals posted mediocre records. Nationals general manager Mike Rizzo responded that his inclusion had merit even based on his time with the Nationals, when he "taught us how to be a professional franchise."


title: Washington Nationals

text: In a ceremony held at Nationals Park between games of a doubleheader on the evening of September 8, 2018, the Nationals inducted former outfielder Jayson Werth, who played for the Nationals from 2011 through 2017, into the Ring of Honor. He became the first "true" National – the first person based specifically on his career as a National – inducted into the Ring of Honor.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals hold spring training in Florida, where they play their annual slate of Grapefruit League games. From 2005 through 2016, they held spring training at Space Coast Stadium in Viera, Florida, a facility that they inherited from the Expos. In 2017, the Nationals moved their spring training operations to The Ballpark of the Palm Beaches, a new facility they share with the Houston Astros in West Palm Beach, Florida; they played their first Grapefruit League game there on February 28, 2017. On February 16, 2018, it was renamed FITTEAM Ballpark of the Palm Beaches after the Nationals and Astros signed a 12-year deal for the naming rights to the stadium that day with FITTEAM, an event brand partnership and organic products firm located in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Washington Nationals Dream Foundation is the team's charity which is "committed to community partnerships that improve the lives of children and families across the Washington Capital Region." The foundation opened a youth baseball academy in partnership with the D.C. government, and a pediatric diabetes care center at Children's National Medical Center in partnership with the Center. The foundation also provides grants to local organizations.


title: Washington Nationals

text: On August 1, 2011, the foundation, in partnership with several local organizations, formally opened Miracle Field in Germantown, Maryland as part of an effort to encourage athletic activity in children with "mental and/or physical challenges." According to Steven Miller of MLB.com, what sets Miracle Field apart in terms of safety is its unique design, as it "is made entirely of a cushioned synthetic turf that is five-eighths of an inch thick—providing a safe surface for children in wheelchairs or with other handicaps."


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals' flagship radio station is WJFK-FM (106.7 FM) "The Fan", which is owned by Entercom. Charlie Slowes and Dave Jageler are the play-by-play announcers. WJFK fronts a radio network of 19 stations serving portions of Virginia, Maryland, West Virginia, North Carolina, and Delaware as well as the District.


title: Washington Nationals

text: WFED (1500 AM) had been the flagship station since the 2006 season until a multi-year agreement was reached between the Nationals and WJFK before the 2011 season. WFED remains on the network as an affiliate; its 50 kilowatt clear-channel signal allows the Nationals' home-team call to be heard up and down the East Coast.


title: Washington Nationals

text: WWZZ (104.1 FM), which carried games in the 2005 season, was the team's first flagship radio station.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Mid-Atlantic Sports Network (MASN) televises all games not picked up by one of MLB's national television partners. Bob Carpenter has been the TV play-by-play announcer since 2006 and F.P. Santangelo was hired in January 2011 as color analyst. Mel Proctor was the TV play-by-announcer in 2005, and former color analysts are Ron Darling (2005), Tom Paciorek (2006), Don Sutton (2007–2008), and Rob Dibble, who took over the job in 2009 and was fired in September 2010 after criticizing Stephen Strasburg for not pitching while injured. Ray Knight filled in as color analyst in September 2010 after Dibble was fired.


title: Washington Nationals

text: Previously, WDCA (channel 20) carried 76 games in the 2005 season while the newly founded MASN was still negotiating cable carriage. From 2009 through 2017, MASN syndicated a package of 20 games for simulcast on an over-the-air television station in Washington. Broadcast partners under this arrangement were WDCW (channel 50) from 2009 through 2012 and CBS affiliate WUSA (channel 9) from 2013 through 2017. MASN did not continue the syndication deal for the 2018 season.


title: Washington Nationals

text: In the midst of a season in which they finished with the worst record in Major League Baseball, the Nationals' television ratings were among the worst in the National League in July 2008 but increased during the 2010 and 2011 seasons. Since 2012, when they began to achieve consistent success on the field, their television viewership has grown continually and dramatically. By 2016, the Nationals′ prime-time television ratings were 15th highest among the 29 U.S. MLB teams, and they rose to 12th in 2017. Ratings declined to 18th among the 29 U.S. teams for the 2018 season.


title: Washington Nationals

text: The Nationals have an inter-league rivalry with the nearby Baltimore Orioles, which is nicknamed the Beltway Series. The teams have played two series a season – one in Baltimore and one in Washington – since 2006. The Nationals and Orioles rivalry is one of the few that can be played in a World Series.


title: Prokaryote

text: A prokaryote () is a single-celled organism that lacks a nucleus and other membrane-bound organelles. The word "prokaryote" comes from the Greek πρό (, 'before') and κάρυον (, 'nut' or 'kernel'). In the two-empire system arising from the work of Édouard Chatton, prokaryotes were classified within the empire Prokaryota. But in the three-domain system, based upon molecular analysis, prokaryotes are divided into two domains: "Bacteria" (formerly Eubacteria) and "Archaea" (formerly Archaebacteria). Organisms with nuclei are placed in a third domain, Eukaryota. In the study of the origins of life, prokaryotes are thought to have arisen before eukaryotes.


title: Prokaryote

text: Besides the absence of a nucleus, prokaryotes also lack mitochondria, or most of the other membrane-bound organelles that characterize the eukaryotic cell. It was once thought that prokaryotic cellular components within the cytoplasm were unenclosed, except for an outer cell membrane, but bacterial microcompartments, which are thought to be simple organelles enclosed in protein shells, have been discovered, along with other prokaryotic organelles. While being unicellular, some prokaryotes, such as cyanobacteria, may form large colonies. Others, such as myxobacteria, have multicellular stages in their life cycles. Prokaryotes are asexual, reproducing without fusion of gametes, although horizontal gene transfer also takes place.


title: Prokaryote

text: Molecular studies have provided insight into the evolution and interrelationships of the three domains of life. The division between prokaryotes and eukaryotes reflects the existence of two very different levels of cellular organization; only eukaryotic cells have an enveloped nucleus that contains its chromosomal DNA, and other characteristic membrane-bound organelles including mitochondria. Distinctive types of prokaryotes include extremophiles and methanogens; these are common in some extreme environments.


title: Prokaryote

text: The distinction between prokaryotes and eukaryotes was firmly established by the microbiologists Roger Stanier and C. B. van Niel in their 1962 paper "The concept of a bacterium" (though spelled procaryote and eucaryote there). That paper cites Édouard Chatton's 1937 book "Titres et Travaux Scientifiques" for using those terms and recognizing the distinction. One reason for this classification was so that what was then often called blue-green algae (now called cyanobacteria) would not be classified as plants but grouped with bacteria.


title: Prokaryote

text: Prokaryotes have a prokaryotic cytoskeleton that is more primitive than that of the eukaryotes. Besides homologues of actin and tubulin (MreB and FtsZ), the helically arranged building-block of the flagellum, flagellin, is one of the most significant cytoskeletal proteins of bacteria, as it provides structural backgrounds of chemotaxis, the basic cell physiological response of bacteria. At least some prokaryotes also contain intracellular structures that can be seen as primitive organelles. Membranous organelles (or intracellular membranes) are known in some groups of prokaryotes, such as vacuoles or membrane systems devoted to special metabolic properties, such as photosynthesis or chemolithotrophy. In addition, some species also contain carbohydrate-enclosed microcompartments, which have distinct physiological roles (e.g. carboxysomes or gas vacuoles).


title: Prokaryote

text: Most prokaryotes are between 1 µm and 10 µm, but they can vary in size from 0.2 µm ("Mycoplasma genitalium") to 750 µm ("Thiomargarita namibiensis").


title: Prokaryote

text: Bacteria and archaea reproduce through asexual reproduction, usually by binary fission. Genetic exchange and recombination still occur, but this is a form of horizontal gene transfer and is not a replicative process, simply involving the transference of DNA between two cells, as in bacterial conjugation.


title: Prokaryote

text: DNA transfer between prokaryotic cells occurs in bacteria and archaea, although it has been mainly studied in bacteria. In bacteria, gene transfer occurs by three processes. These are (1) bacterial virus (bacteriophage)-mediated transduction, (2) plasmid-mediated conjugation, and (3) natural transformation. Transduction of bacterial genes by bacteriophage appears to reflect an occasional error during intracellular assembly of virus particles, rather than an adaptation of the host bacteria. The transfer of bacterial DNA is under the control of the bacteriophage's genes rather than bacterial genes. Conjugation in the well-studied "E. coli" system is controlled by plasmid genes, and is an adaptation for distributing copies of a plasmid from one bacterial host to another. Infrequently during this process, a plasmid may integrate into the host bacterial chromosome, and subsequently transfer part of the host bacterial DNA to another bacterium. Plasmid mediated transfer of host bacterial DNA (conjugation) also appears to be an accidental process rather than a bacterial adaptation.


title: Prokaryote

text: Natural bacterial transformation involves the transfer of DNA from one bacterium to another through the intervening medium. Unlike transduction and conjugation, transformation is clearly a bacterial adaptation for DNA transfer, because it depends on numerous bacterial gene products that specifically interact to perform this complex process. For a bacterium to bind, take up and recombine donor DNA into its own chromosome, it must first enter a special physiological state called competence. About 40 genes are required in "Bacillus subtilis" for the development of competence. The length of DNA transferred during "B. subtilis" transformation can be as much as a third to the whole chromosome. Transformation is a common mode of DNA transfer, and 67 prokaryotic species are thus far known to be naturally competent for transformation.


title: Prokaryote

text: Among archaea, "Halobacterium volcanii" forms cytoplasmic bridges between cells that appear to be used for transfer of DNA from one cell to another. Another archaeon, "Sulfolobus solfataricus", transfers DNA between cells by direct contact. Frols et al. found that exposure of "S. solfataricus" to DNA damaging agents induces cellular aggregation, and suggested that cellular aggregation may enhance DNA transfer among cells to provide increased repair of damaged DNA via homologous recombination.


title: Prokaryote

text: While prokaryotes are considered strictly unicellular, most can form stable aggregate communities. When such communities are encased in a stabilizing polymer matrix ("slime"), they may be called "biofilms". Cells in biofilms often show distinct patterns of gene expression (phenotypic differentiation) in time and space. Also, as with multicellular eukaryotes, these changes in expression often appear to result from cell-to-cell signaling, a phenomenon known as quorum sensing.


title: Prokaryote

text: Biofilms may be highly heterogeneous and structurally complex and may attach to solid surfaces, or exist at liquid-air interfaces, or potentially even liquid-liquid interfaces. Bacterial biofilms are often made up of microcolonies (approximately dome-shaped masses of bacteria and matrix) separated by "voids" through which the medium (e.g., water) may flow easily. The microcolonies may join together above the substratum to form a continuous layer, closing the network of channels separating microcolonies. This structural complexity—combined with observations that oxygen limitation (a ubiquitous challenge for anything growing in size beyond the scale of diffusion) is at least partially eased by movement of medium throughout the biofilm—has led some to speculate that this may constitute a circulatory system and many researchers have started calling prokaryotic communities multicellular (for example ). Differential cell expression, collective behavior, signaling, programmed cell death, and (in some cases) discrete biological dispersal events all seem to point in this direction. However, these colonies are seldom if ever founded by a single founder (in the way that animals and plants are founded by single cells), which presents a number of theoretical issues. Most explanations of co-operation and the evolution of multicellularity have focused on high relatedness between members of a group (or colony, or whole organism). If a copy of a gene is present in all members of a group, behaviors that promote cooperation between members may permit those members to have (on average) greater fitness than a similar group of selfish individuals (see inclusive fitness and Hamilton's rule).


title: Prokaryote

text: Should these instances of prokaryotic sociality prove to be the rule rather than the exception, it would have serious implications for the way we view prokaryotes in general, and the way we deal with them in medicine. Bacterial biofilms may be 100 times more resistant to antibiotics than free-living unicells and may be nearly impossible to remove from surfaces once they have colonized them. Other aspects of bacterial cooperation—such as bacterial conjugation and quorum-sensing-mediated pathogenicity, present additional challenges to researchers and medical professionals seeking to treat the associated diseases.


title: Prokaryote

text: Prokaryotes have diversified greatly throughout their long existence. The metabolism of prokaryotes is far more varied than that of eukaryotes, leading to many highly distinct prokaryotic types. For example, in addition to using photosynthesis or organic compounds for energy, as eukaryotes do, prokaryotes may obtain energy from inorganic compounds such as hydrogen sulfide. This enables prokaryotes to thrive in harsh environments as cold as the snow surface of Antarctica, studied in cryobiology, or as hot as undersea hydrothermal vents and land-based hot springs.


title: Prokaryote

text: Prokaryotes live in nearly all environments on Earth. Some archaea and bacteria are extremophiles, thriving in harsh conditions, such as high temperatures (thermophiles) or high salinity (halophiles). Many archaea grow as plankton in the oceans. Symbiotic prokaryotes live in or on the bodies of other organisms, including humans. Prokaryote have high populations in the soil - including the rhizosphere and rhizosheath. Soil prokaryotes are still heavily undercharacterized despite their easy proximity to humans and their tremendous economic importance to agriculture.


title: Prokaryote

text: In 1977, Carl Woese proposed dividing prokaryotes into the Bacteria and Archaea (originally Eubacteria and Archaebacteria) because of the major differences in the structure and genetics between the two groups of organisms. Archaea were originally thought to be extremophiles, living only in inhospitable conditions such as extremes of temperature, pH, and radiation but have since been found in all types of habitats. The resulting arrangement of Eukaryota (also called "Eucarya"), Bacteria, and Archaea is called the three-domain system, replacing the traditional two-empire system.


title: Prokaryote

text: A widespread current model of the evolution of the first living organisms is that these were some form of prokaryotes, which may have evolved out of protocells, while the eukaryotes evolved later in the history of life. Some authors have questioned this conclusion, arguing that the current set of prokaryotic species may have evolved from more complex eukaryotic ancestors through a process of simplification.


title: Prokaryote

text: Others have argued that the three domains of life arose simultaneously, from a set of varied cells that formed a single gene pool. This controversy was summarized in 2005:


title: Prokaryote

text: There is no consensus among biologists concerning the position of the eukaryotes in the overall scheme of cell evolution. Current opinions on the origin and position of eukaryotes span a broad spectrum including the views that eukaryotes arose first in evolution and that prokaryotes descend from them, that eukaryotes arose contemporaneously with eubacteria and archaebacteria and hence represent a primary line of descent of equal age and rank as the prokaryotes, that eukaryotes arose through a symbiotic event entailing an endosymbiotic origin of the nucleus, that eukaryotes arose without endosymbiosis, and that eukaryotes arose through a symbiotic event entailing a simultaneous endosymbiotic origin of the flagellum and the nucleus, in addition to many other models, which have been reviewed and summarized elsewhere.


title: Prokaryote

text: The oldest known fossilized prokaryotes were laid down approximately 3.5 billion years ago, only about 1 billion years after the formation of the Earth's crust. Eukaryotes only appear in the fossil record later, and may have formed from endosymbiosis of multiple prokaryote ancestors. The oldest known fossil eukaryotes are about 1.7 billion years old. However, some genetic evidence suggests eukaryotes appeared as early as 3 billion years ago.


title: Prokaryote

text: While Earth is the only place in the universe where life is known to exist, some have suggested that there is evidence on Mars of fossil or living prokaryotes. However, this possibility remains the subject of considerable debate and skepticism.


title: Prokaryote

text: The division between prokaryotes and eukaryotes is usually considered the most important distinction or difference among organisms. The distinction is that eukaryotic cells have a "true" nucleus containing their DNA, whereas prokaryotic cells do not have a nucleus.


title: Prokaryote

text: Both eukaryotes and prokaryotes contain large RNA/protein structures called ribosomes, which produce protein, but the ribosomes of prokaryotes are smaller than those of eukaryotes. Mitochondria and chloroplasts, two organelles found in many eukaryotic cells, contain ribosomes similar in size and makeup to those found in prokaryotes. This is one of many pieces of evidence that mitochondria and chloroplasts are descended from free-living bacteria. The endosymbiotic theory holds that early eukaryotic cells took in primitive prokaryotic cells by phagocytosis and adapted themselves to incorporate their structures, leading to the mitochondria and chloroplasts.


title: Prokaryote

text: The genome in a prokaryote is held within a DNA/protein complex in the cytosol called the nucleoid, which lacks a nuclear envelope. The complex contains a single, cyclic, double-stranded molecule of stable chromosomal DNA, in contrast to the multiple linear, compact, highly organized chromosomes found in eukaryotic cells. In addition, many important genes of prokaryotes are stored in separate circular DNA structures called plasmids. Like Eukaryotes, prokaryotes may partially duplicate genetic material, and can have a haploid chromosomal composition that is partially replicated, a condition known as merodiploidy.


title: Prokaryote

text: Prokaryotes lack mitochondria and chloroplasts. Instead, processes such as oxidative phosphorylation and photosynthesis take place across the prokaryotic cell membrane. However, prokaryotes do possess some internal structures, such as prokaryotic cytoskeletons. It has been suggested that the bacterial phylum Planctomycetota has a membrane around the nucleoid and contains other membrane-bound cellular structures. However, further investigation revealed that Planctomycetota cells are not compartmentalized or nucleated and, like other bacterial membrane systems, are interconnected.


title: Prokaryote

text: Prokaryotic cells are usually much smaller than eukaryotic cells. Therefore, prokaryotes have a larger surface-area-to-volume ratio, giving them a higher metabolic rate, a higher growth rate, and as a consequence, a shorter generation time than eukaryotes.


title: Prokaryote

text: There is increasing evidence that the roots of the eukaryotes are to be found in (or at least next to) the archaean asgard group, perhaps Heimdallarchaeota (an idea which is a modern version of the 1984 eocyte hypothesis, "eocytes" being an old synonym for "Thermoproteota", a taxon to be found nearby the then-unknown Asgard group) For example, histones which usually package DNA in eukaryotic nuclei, have also been found in several archaean groups, giving evidence for homology. This idea might clarify the mysterious predecessor of eukaryotic cells (eucytes) which engulfed an alphaproteobacterium forming the first eucyte (LECA, last eukaryotic common ancestor) according to endosymbiotic theory. There might have been some additional support by viruses, called viral eukaryogenesis.


title: Prokaryote

text: The non-bacterial group comprising archaea and eukaryota was called Neomura by Thomas Cavalier-Smith in 2002.


title: Prokaryote

text: However, in a cladistic view, eukaryota "are" archaea in the same sense as birds "are" dinosaurs because they evolved from the maniraptora dinosaur group. In contrast, archaea "without" eukaryota appear to be a paraphyletic group, just like dinosaurs without birds.


title: Prokaryote

text: Unlike the above assumption of a fundamental split between prokaryotes and eukaryotes, the most important difference between biota may be the division between bacteria and the rest (archaea and eukaryota). For instance, DNA replication differs fundamentally between bacteria and archaea (including that in eukaryotic nuclei), and it may not be homologous between these two groups. Moreover, ATP synthase, though common (homologous) in all organisms, differs greatly between bacteria (including eukaryotic organelles such as mitochondria and chloroplasts) and the archaea/eukaryote nucleus group. The last common antecessor of all life (called LUCA, last universal common ancestor) should have possessed an early version of this protein complex. As ATP synthase is obligate membrane bound, this supports the assumption that LUCA was a cellular organism. The RNA world hypothesis might clarify this scenario, as LUCA might have been a ribocyte (also called ribocell) lacking DNA, but with an RNA genome built by ribosomes as primordial self-replicating entities. A Peptide-RNA world (also called RNP world) hypothesis has been proposed based on the idea that oligopeptides may have been built together with primordial nucleic acids at the same time, which also supports the concept of a ribocyte as LUCA. The feature of DNA as the material base of the genome might have then been adopted separately in bacteria and in archaea (and later eukaryote nuclei), presumably by help of some viruses (possibly retroviruses as they could reverse transcribe RNA to DNA). As a result, prokaryota comprising bacteria and archaea may also be polyphyletic.


title: RAND Corporation

text: The RAND Corporation (from the phrase "research and development") is an American nonprofit global policy think tank created in 1948 by Douglas Aircraft Company to offer research and analysis to the United States Armed Forces. It is financed by the U.S. government and private endowment, corporations, universities and private individuals.


title: RAND Corporation

text: The company assists other governments, international organizations, private companies and foundations with a host of defense and non-defense issues, including healthcare. RAND aims for interdisciplinary and quantitative problem solving by translating theoretical concepts from formal economics and the physical sciences into novel applications in other areas, using applied science and operations research.


title: RAND Corporation

text: RAND has approximately 1,850 employees. Its American locations include: Santa Monica, California (headquarters); Arlington, Virginia; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; and Boston, Massachusetts. The RAND Gulf States Policy Institute has an office in New Orleans, Louisiana. RAND Europe is located in Cambridge, United Kingdom, and Brussels, Belgium. RAND Australia is located in Canberra, Australia.


title: RAND Corporation

text: RAND is home to the Frederick S. Pardee RAND Graduate School, one of eight original graduate programs in public policy and the first to offer a PhD. The program aims to provide practical experience for its students, who work with RAND analysts on real-world problems. The campus is at RAND's Santa Monica research facility. The Pardee RAND School is the world's largest PhD-granting program in policy analysis.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Unlike many other universities, all Pardee RAND Graduate School students receive fellowships to cover their education costs. This allows them to dedicate their time to engage in research projects and provides them on-the-job training. RAND also offers a number of internship and fellowship programs allowing students and outsiders to assist in conducting research for RAND projects. Most of these projects are short-term and are worked on independently with the mentoring of a RAND staff member.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Thirty-two recipients of the Nobel Prize, primarily in the fields of economics and physics, have been associated with RAND at some point in their career.


title: RAND Corporation

text: RAND was created after individuals in the War Department, the Office of Scientific Research and Development, and industry began to discuss the need for a private organization to connect operational research with research and development decisions. The immediate impetus for the creation of RAND was a fateful conversation in September 1945 between General Henry H. "Hap" Arnold and Douglas executive Franklin R. Collbohm. Both men were deeply worried that ongoing demobilization meant the federal government was about to lose direct control of the vast amount of American scientific brainpower assembled to fight World War II.


title: RAND Corporation

text: As soon as Arnold realized Collbohm had been thinking along similar lines, he said, "I know just what you're going to tell me. It's the most important thing we can do." With Arnold's blessing, Collbohm quickly pulled in additional people from Douglas to help, and together with Donald Douglas, they convened with Arnold two days later at Hamilton Army Airfield to sketch out a general outline for Collbohm's proposed project.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Douglas engineer Arthur Emmons Raymond came up with the name Project RAND, from "research and development". Collbohm suggested that he himself should serve as the project's first director, which he thought would be a temporary position while he searched for a permanent replacement for himself. He later became RAND's first president and served in that capacity until his retirement in 1967.


title: RAND Corporation

text: On 1 October 1945, Project RAND was set up under special contract to the Douglas Aircraft Company and began operations in December 1945. In May 1946, the "Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship" was released.


title: RAND Corporation

text: By late 1947, Douglas had expressed their concerns that their close relationship with RAND might create conflict of interest problems on future hardware contracts. In February 1948, the chief of staff of the newly created United States Air Force approved the evolution of Project RAND into a nonprofit corporation, independent of Douglas.


title: RAND Corporation

text: On 14 May 1948, RAND was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation under the laws of the State of California and on 1 November 1948, the Project RAND contract was formally transferred from the Douglas Aircraft Company to the RAND Corporation. Initial capital for the spin-off was provided by the Ford Foundation.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Since the 1950s, RAND research has helped inform United States policy decisions on a wide variety of issues, including the space race, the U.S.-Soviet nuclear arms confrontation, the creation of the Great Society social welfare programs, the digital revolution, and national health care.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Its most visible contribution may be the doctrine of nuclear deterrence by mutually assured destruction (MAD), developed under the guidance of then-Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and based upon their work with game theory. Chief strategist Herman Kahn also posited the idea of a "winnable" nuclear exchange in his 1960 book "On Thermonuclear War". This led to Kahn being one of the models for the titular character of the film "", in which RAND is spoofed as the "BLAND Corporation".


title: RAND Corporation

text: Even in the late 1940s and early 1950s, long before Sputnik, the RAND project was secretly recommending to the US government a major effort to design a man-made satellite that would take photographs from space—and the rockets to put such a satellite in orbit.


title: RAND Corporation

text: RAND was incorporated as a non-profit organization to "further promote scientific, educational, and charitable purposes, all for the public welfare and security of the United States of America". Its self-declared mission is "to help improve policy and decision making through research and analysis", using its "core values of quality and objectivity".


title: RAND Corporation

text: The achievements of RAND stem from its development of systems analysis. Important contributions are claimed in space systems and the United States' space program, in computing and in artificial intelligence. RAND researchers developed many of the principles that were used to build the Internet. RAND also contributed to the development and use of wargaming.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Current areas of expertise include: child policy, civil and criminal justice, education, health, international policy, labor markets, national security, infrastructure, energy, environment, corporate governance, economic development, intelligence policy, long-range planning, crisis management and disaster preparation, population and regional studies, science and technology, social welfare, terrorism, arts policy, and transportation.


title: RAND Corporation

text: RAND designed and conducted one of the largest and most important studies of health insurance between 1974 and 1982. The RAND Health Insurance Experiment, funded by the then–U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare, established an insurance corporation to compare demand for health services with their cost to the patient.


title: RAND Corporation

text: In 2018, RAND began its Gun Policy in America initiative, which resulted in comprehensive reviews of the evidence of the effects of gun policies in the United States. The second expanded review in 2020 analyzed almost 13,000 relevant studies on guns and gun violence since 1995 and selected 123 as having sufficient methodological rigor for inclusion. These were used to determine the level of scientific support for eighteen classes of gun policy.


title: RAND Corporation

text: Almost since its inception, the RAND Corporation has been involved in controversial issues—and its reports, recommendations and influence have been the subject of extensive public debate and controversy. Among these have been:


title: .45-70

text: The .45-70 rifle cartridge, also known as the .45-70 Government, was developed at the U.S. Army's Springfield Armory for use in the Springfield Model 1873, which is known to collectors as the "Trapdoor Springfield." The new cartridge was a replacement for the stop-gap .50-70 Government cartridge, which had been adopted in 1866, one year after the end of the American Civil War.


title: .45-70

text: The new cartridge was completely identified as the ".45-70-405", but was also referred to as the ".45 Government" cartridge in commercial catalogs. The nomenclature of the time was based on three properties of the cartridge:


title: .45-70

text: The minimum acceptable accuracy of the .45-70 from the 1873 Springfield was approximately at , however, the heavy, slow-moving bullet had a "rainbow" trajectory, the bullet dropping multiple yards (meters) at ranges greater than a few hundred yards (meters). A skilled shooter, firing at a known range, could consistently hit targets that were 6 × at —the Army standard target. It was a skill valuable mainly in mass or volley fire, since accurate aimed fire on a man-sized target was effective only to about .


title: .45-70

text: After the Sandy Hook tests of 1879, a new variation of the .45-70 cartridge was produced: the .45-70-500, which fired a heavier, 500 grain, (32.57 g) bullet. The heavier bullet produced significantly superior ballistics and could reach ranges of 3,350 yards (3,120 m), which were beyond the maximum range of the .45-70-405. While the effective range of the .45-70 on individual targets was limited to about 1,000 yards (915 m) with either load, the heavier bullet produced lethal injuries at . At those ranges, the bullets struck point-first at a roughly 30-degree angle, penetrating three 1-inch (2.5 cm) thick oak boards, and then traveled to a depth of eight inches (20 cm) into the sand of the beach. It was hoped the longer range of the .45-70-500 would allow effective volley fire at ranges beyond those normally expected of infantry fire.


title: .45-70

text: While the nominal bore diameter was , the groove diameter was actually closer to . As was standard practice with many early commercially-produced U.S. cartridges, specially-constructed bullets were often "paper patched", or wrapped in a couple of layers of thin paper. This patch served to seal the bore and keep the soft lead bullet from coming in contact with the bore, preventing leading (see internal ballistics). Like the cloth or paper patches used in muzzle-loading firearms, the paper patch fell off soon after the bullet left the bore. Paper-patched bullets were made of soft lead, in diameter. When wrapped in two layers of thin cotton paper, this produced a final size of to match the bore. Paper patched bullets are still available, and some black-powder shooters still "roll their own" paper-patched bullets for hunting and competitive shooting. Arsenal loadings for the .45-70-405 and .45-70-500 government cartridges generally used groove diameter grease groove bullets of diameter.


title: .45-70

text: The predecessor to the .45-70 was the .50-70-450 cartridge, adopted in 1866 and used until 1873 in a variety of rifles, many of them were percussion rifled muskets converted to trapdoor action breechloaders. The conversion consisted of milling out the rear of the barrel for the trapdoor breechblock, and placing a .50 caliber "liner" barrel inside the .58 caliber barrel. The .50-70 was popular among hunters, as the bullet was larger than the .44 caliber and also hit harder (see terminal ballistics), but the military decided as early as 1866 that a .45 caliber bullet would provide increased range, penetration and accuracy. The .50-70 was nevertheless adopted as a temporary solution until a significantly improved rifle and cartridge could be developed.


title: .45-70

text: The result of the quest for a more accurate, flatter shooting .45 caliber cartridge and firearm was the Springfield trapdoor rifle. Like the .50-70, the .45-70 used a copper center-fire case design. A reduced power loading was also adopted for use in the Trapdoor carbine. This had a 55 grain (3.6 g) powder charge.


title: .45-70

text: Also issued was the .45-70 "Forager" round, which contained a thin wooden bullet filled with birdshot, intended for hunting small game to supplement the soldiers' rations. This round in effect made the .45-70 rifle into a 49 gauge shotgun.


title: .45-70

text: The .45-caliber Springfield underwent a number of modifications over the years, the principal one being a strengthened breech starting in 1884. A new, 500 grain (32 g) bullet was adopted in that year for use in the stronger arm. The M1873 and M1884 Springfield rifles were the principal small arms of the U.S. Army until 1893.


title: .45-70

text: The .45-70 round was also used in several Gatling gun models from 1873 until it was superseded by the .30 Army round beginning with the M1893 Gatling gun. Some .45-70 Gatling guns were used on U.S. Navy warships launched in the 1880s and 1890s.


title: .45-70

text: The Navy used the .45-70 caliber in several rifles: the M1873 and M1884 Springfield, the Model 1879 Lee Magazine Navy contract rifle, and the Remington-Lee, the last two being magazine-fed turnbolt repeating rifles. The Marine Corps used the M1873 and M1884 Springfield in .45-70 until 1897, when supplies of the new M1895 Lee Navy rifle in 6mm Lee Navy, adopted two years before by the Navy, were finally made available.


title: .45-70

text: Realizing that single-shot black-powder rifles were rapidly becoming obsolete, the U.S. Army adopted the Norwegian-designed .30 Army caliber as the Springfield Model 1892 in 1893. However, the .45-70 continued in service with the National Guard, Navy, and Marine Corps until 1897. The .45-70 was last used in quantity during the Spanish–American War, and was not completely purged from the inventory until well into the 20th century. Many surplus rifles were given to reservation Indians as subsistence hunting rifles and now carry Indian markings.


title: .45-70

text: The .45-70 cartridge is still used by the U.S. military today, in the form of the "cartridge, caliber .45, line throwing, M32," a blank cartridge which is used in a number of models of line throwing guns used by the Navy and Coast Guard. Early models of these line throwing guns were made from modified Trapdoor and Sharps rifles, while later models are built on break-open single-shot rifle actions.


title: .45-70

text: As is usual with military ammunition, the .45-70 was an immediate hit among sportsmen, and the .45-70 has survived to the present day. Today, the traditional 405-grain (26.2 g) load is considered adequate for any North American big game within its range limitations, including the great bears, and it does not destroy edible meat on smaller animals such as deer due to the bullet's low velocity. It is very good for big-game hunting in brush or heavy timber where the range is usually short. The .45-70, when loaded with the proper bullets at appropriate velocities, has been used to hunt the African "big-five." The .45-70 has been loaded and used to hunt everything from birds to elephants and the cartridge is still undergoing new development work.


title: .45-70

text: The trajectory of the bullets is very steep, which makes for a very short point-blank range. This was not a significant problem at the time of introduction, as the .45-70 was a fairly flat-shooting cartridge for its time. Shooters of these early cartridges had to be keen judges of distance, wind and trajectory to make long shots; the Sharps rifle, in larger calibers such as .50-110, was used at ranges of . Most modern shooters use much higher velocity cartridges, relying on the long point-blank range, and rarely using telescopic sights' elevation adjustments, calibrated iron sights, or hold-overs. Sights found on early cartridge hunting rifles were quite sophisticated, with a long sighting radius, wide range of elevation, and vernier adjustments to allow precise calibration of the sights for a given range. Even the military "creedmoor"-type rifle sights were calibrated and designed to handle extended ranges, flipping up to provide several degrees of elevation adjustment if needed. The .45-70 is a popular choice for black-powder cartridge shooting events, and replicas of most of the early rifles, including Trapdoor, Sharps, and Remington single-shot rifles, are often available.


title: .45-70

text: The .45-70 is a long-range caliber, and accurate use requires knowledge of windage and elevation by minute of angle and a sense for estimating distance in these calculations. The .45-70 retains great popularity among American hunters, and is still offered by several commercial ammunition manufacturers. Even when loaded with modern smokeless powders, pressures are usually kept low for safety in antique rifles and their replicas. Various modern sporting rifles are chambered for the .45-70, and some of these benefit from judicious handloading of homemade ammunition with markedly higher pressure and ballistic performance. Others, which reproduce the original designs still take the original load, but are not strong enough for anything with higher pressures. In a rifle such as the Siamese Mauser (commonly converted to fire .45-70 due to it being the only Mauser 98 derivative designed to feed rimmed cartridges, and the limited availability of ammunition for its original 8×50mmR chambering) or a Ruger No. 1 single-shot rifle, it can be handloaded to deliver good performance even on big African game. The .45-70 has also been used in double rifles since the development of the Colt 1878 rifle and the more modern replicas, like the Kodiak Mark IV.


title: .45-70

text: In addition to its traditional use in rifles, Thompson Center Arms has offered a .45-70 barrel in both pistol and rifle lengths for their "Contender" single-shot pistol, one of the most potent calibers offered in the Contender frame. Even the shortest barrel, 14 inches, is capable of producing well over 2,500 ft·lbf (2,700 J) of energy, double the power of most .44 Magnum loadings, and a Taylor KO Factor as high as 40 with some loads. Recent .45-70 barrels are available with efficient muzzle brakes that significantly reduce muzzle rise and also help attenuate the recoil. The Magnum Research BFR is a heavier gun at approximately 4.5 pounds, helping it have much more manageable recoil.


title: .45-70

text: Only with the recent introduction of ultra-magnum revolver cartridges, such as the .500 S&W Magnum, have production handguns begun to eclipse the .45-70 Contender in the field of big-game-capable handguns.