title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Local ordinaries are placed over or exercise ordinary executive power in particular churches or equivalent communities.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Major superiors of religious institutes (including abbots) and of societies of apostolic life are ordinaries of their respective memberships, but not local ordinaries.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Bishops are assisted by priests and deacons. All priests and deacons are incardinated in a diocese or religious order. Parishes, whether territorial or person-based, within a diocese are normally in the charge of a priest, known as the parish priest or the pastor.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: In the Latin Church, only celibate men, as a rule, are ordained as priests, while the Eastern Churches, again as a rule, ordain both celibate and married men. Among the Eastern particular Churches, the Ethiopic Catholic Church ordains only celibate clergy, while also having married priests who were ordained in the Orthodox Church, while other Eastern Catholic Churches, which do ordain married men, do not have married priests in certain countries. The Western or Latin Church does sometimes, though rarely, ordain married men, usually Protestant clergy who have become Catholics. A married man aged 35 and above may be ordained as a deacon, with his wife's permission. All sui iuris Churches of the Catholic Church maintain the ancient tradition that, following ordination, marriage is not allowed. Even a married priest or deacon whose wife dies may not then marry again.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The Catholic Church and the ancient Christian Churches see priestly ordination as a sacrament dedicating the ordinand to a permanent relationship of service, and, like Baptism and Confirmation, having an ontological effect on him. It is for this reason that a person may be ordained to each of the three orders only once. They also consider that ordination can be conferred only on males.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Although priests are incardinated into a diocese or order, they may obtain the permission of their diocesan ordinary or religious superior to serve outside the normal jurisdiction of the diocese or order. These assignments may be temporary or more permanent in nature.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Temporary assignments may include studying for an advanced degree at a Pontifical University in Rome. They may also include short-term assignments to the faculty of a seminary located outside the diocese's territory.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Long-term assignments include serving the universal church on the staff of a dicastery or tribunal of the Roman Curia or in the diplomatic corps of the Holy See. They may also be appointed the rector or to long-term teaching assignments to the faculty of a seminary or Catholic university. Priests may also serve on the staff of their episcopal conference, as military chaplains in the military ordinariates, or as missionaries.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The diocesan bishop appoints a vicar general to assist him in the governance of the diocese. Usually, only one vicar general is appointed; particularly large dioceses may have more than one vicar general. The vicar general or one of them is usually appointed moderator of the curia who coordinates the diocesan administrative offices and ministries. A diocesan bishop can also appoint one or more episcopal vicars for the diocese. They have the same ordinary power as a vicar general, however, it is limited to a specified division of the diocese, to a specific type of activity, to the faithful of a particular rite, or to certain groups of people. Vicars general and episcopal vicars must be priests or bishops. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, they are called protosyncelli and syncelli (canon 191 of the "Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches").


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Diocesan bishops are required to appoint a judicial vicar to whom is delegated the bishop's ordinary power to judge cases (canon 1420 of the "Code of Canon Law", canon 191 of the 1983 "Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches"). In the Latin church, the judicial vicar may also be called "officialis". The person holding this post must be a priest, have earned a doctorate in canon law (or at least a license), be at least thirty years old, and, unless the smallness of the diocese or the limited number of cases suggests otherwise, must not be the vicar general. As one of the jobs of the judicial vicar is to preside over collegiate tribunals, many dioceses have adjutant judicial vicars who can preside over collegiate tribunals in place of the judicial vicar and must have the same qualifications.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The diocesan bishop appoints a chancellor, possibly a vice-chancellor, and notaries to the diocesan chancery. These officials maintain the records and archives of the diocese. They also serve as the secretaries of the diocesan curia. The bishop also appoints a finance officer and a finance council to oversee the budget, temporal goods, income, and expenses of the diocese.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The diocesan bishop may appoint priests to be members of the chapter of his cathedral or of a collegiate church (so called after their chapter). These priests are given the title of canon. He also appoints six to twelve priests from the presbyteral council to serve as a college of consultors. They have the responsibility to elect the diocesan administrator in the event of the vacancy of the see.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The bishop appoints priests and other members of the faithful to various advisory bodies. These include the presbyteral council, the diocesan synod, and the pastoral council.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: "The Vicar Forane known also as the Dean or the Archpriest or by some other title, is the priest who is placed in charge of a vicariate forane" (canon 553 of the 1983 "Code of Canon Law"), namely of a group of parishes within a diocese. Unlike a regional Episcopal vicar, a vicar forane acts as a help for the parish priests and other priests in the vicariate forane, rather than as an intermediate authority between them and the diocesan bishop.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: This section concerns the priest who in the 1983 Code of Canon Law is referred to by the term "parochus", which in some English-speaking countries is rendered as "the parish priest", in others as "the pastor". The English term "pastor" is also used in a more generic sense corresponding instead to the Latin term "pastor":


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The parish priest is the proper pastor of the parish entrusted to him. He exercises the pastoral care of the community entrusted to him under the authority of the diocesan Bishop, whose ministry of Christ he is called to share, so that for this community he may carry out the offices of teaching, sanctifying and ruling with the cooperation of other priests or deacons and with the assistance of lay members of Christ's faithful, in accordance with the law


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The pastor ("parochus") is the proper pastor ("pastor") of the parish entrusted to him, exercising the pastoral care of the community committed to him under the authority of the diocesan bishop in whose ministry of Christ he has been called to share, so that for that same community he carries out the functions of teaching, sanctifying, and governing, also with the cooperation of other presbyters or deacons and with the assistance of lay members of the Christian faithful, according to the norm of law


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Whenever it is necessary or opportune for the due pastoral care of the parish, one or more assistant priests can be joined with the parish priest. As cooperators with the parish priest and sharers in his concern, they are, by common counsel and effort with the parish priest and under his authority, to labour in the pastoral ministry


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Whenever it is necessary or opportune in order to carry out the pastoral care of a parish fittingly, one or more parochial vicars can be associated with the pastor. As co-workers with the pastor and sharers in his solicitude, they are to offer service in the pastoral ministry by common counsel and effort with the pastor and under his authority


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The honorary title of "monsignor" is conferred by the Pope upon diocesan priests (not members of religious institutes) in the service of the Holy See, and may be granted by him also to other diocesan priests at the request of the priest's bishop. The priest so honored is considered to be a member of the papal household. The title goes with any of the following three awards:


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: In December 2013, Pope Francis decided to make future grants of the title of "Monsignor" to priests not in the service of the Holy See only in the rank of Chaplain of His Holiness and only to priests aged 65 or over.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Under legislation of Pope Pius X, vicars general and vicars capitular (the latter are now called diocesan administrators) are titular (not actual) Protonotaries "durante munere", i.e., as long as they hold those offices, and so are entitled to be addressed as Monsignor, as indicated also by the placing of the abbreviated title "Mons", before the name of every member of the secular (diocesan) clergy listed as a vicar general in the "Annuario Pontificio". (Honorary titles such as that of "Monsignor" are not considered appropriate for religious.)


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Some of the Eastern Catholic Churches of Syriac tradition use the title "Chorbishop", roughly equivalent to the Western title of "Monsignor". Other Eastern Catholic Churches bestow the honorific title of "Archimandrite" upon unmarried priests as a mark of respect or gratitude for their services. Married presbyters may be honored with the position of "Archpriest", which has two grades, the higher is "Mitred Archpriest" which permits the priest to wear a mitre.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: In the Latin Church, the title of Archpriest is sometimes attached to the pastors of historic churches, including the major basilicas in Rome. These archpriests are not presbyters, but bishops or cardinals. Similarly, the title of Archdeacon is sometimes conferred on presbyters.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Deacons are ordained ministers of the Church who are co-workers with the bishop alongside presbyters, but are intended to focus on the ministries of direct service and outreach to the poor and needy, rather than pastoral leadership. They are usually related to a parish, where they have a liturgical function as the ordinary minister of the Gospel and the Prayers of the Faithful, They may preach homilies, and in the Roman Rite may preside at non-Eucharistic liturgies such as baptisms, weddings, funerals, and adoration/benediction. In the Eastern Catholic Churches, in the absence of a priest, deacons do not vest and may only lead services as a reader, never presiding at weddings or funerals.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The scriptural basis and description of the role and qualifications of the deacon can be found in Acts 6:1–9, and in 1 Timothy 3:1–13.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: They may be seminarians preparing for ordination to the priesthood, "transitional deacons", or "permanent deacons" who do not intend to be ordained as priests. To be ordained deacons, the latter must be at least 25 years old , if unmarried; if married, a prospective deacon must be at least 35 years old and have the consent of his wife, in the United States. In the Latin Church, married deacons are permanent deacons. In most diocese there is a cut-off age for being accepted into formation for the diaconate.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The passage from membership of the laity to that of the clergy occurs with ordination to the diaconate. Previously, the Latin Church rule was that one became a cleric on receiving clerical tonsure, which was followed by minor orders and by the subdiaconate, which was reckoned as one of the major orders. By his motu proprio "Ministeria quaedam" of 15 August 1972, Pope Paul VI decreed: "The orders hitherto called minor are henceforth to be spoken of as 'ministries'." The same motu proprio also decreed that the Latin Church would no longer have the major order of subdiaconate, but it permitted any episcopal conference that so desired to apply the term "subdeacon" to those who hold the ministry (formerly called the minor order) of "acolyte". Even in those societies within the Latin Church that, with the approval of the Holy See, continue to administer the rites of tonsure, minor orders and subdiaconate, those who receive those rites remain lay people, becoming clerics only on being ordained as deacons.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Most Catholics are laity, a term derived from Greek λαὸς Θεοῦ ("Laos Theou"), meaning "people of God". All Christian faithful have the right and duty to bring the gospel message increasingly to "all people in every age and every land". They all have a share in the Church's mission and have the right to undertake apostolic activity according to their own state and condition.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Lay ministry can take the form of exercising the priesthood of all the baptized, and more specifically undertaking the work of catechists. serving the Church pastorally, administratively, and in other ways, including the liturgical services as acolytes, lectors, cantors, and the like, initiation sponsors, pastoral care ministers, and members of parish and diocesan consultative bodies.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Some lay Catholics carry out full-time professional and vocational service in the name of the Church, rather than in a secular calling. Though the phenomenon is widespread in North America and much of Europe, the organization and definition of the ministry is left to national bishops conferences. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has adopted the term lay ecclesial ministry for these individuals, as intentionally distinct from the general apostolate or ministry of the laity described above.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: The consultative leadership of the church, in both the diocese and the parish, usually comprises a Pastoral Council and a Finance Council, as well as several Commissions usually focusing on major aspects of the church's life and mission, such as Faith Formation or Christian Education, Liturgy, Social Justice, Ecumenism, or Stewardship.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Religious—who can be either lay people or clergy—are members of religious institutes, societies in which the members take public vows and live a fraternal life in common. This is a form of consecrated life distinct from other forms, such as that of secular institutes. It is distinct also from forms that do not involve membership of an institute, such as that of consecrated hermits, that of consecrated virgins, and other forms whose approval is reserved to the Holy See.


title: Hierarchy of the Catholic Church

text: Religious institutes have historically been subdivided into the categories of orders and congregations. Male members of orders or congregations may use the titles brother, monk, or friar, while female members may use the titles sister or nun. Each order may have its own hierarchy of offices such superior general, abbot/abbess, mother superior, prior/prioress, or others, and the specific duties and responsibilities for each office will depend on the specific order or community. Those who are in the process of joining a religious institute but have not yet taken their final vows may be referred to as postulants or novices.


Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia (Maria Nikolaevna Romanova; Russian: Великая Княжна Мария Николаевна, 17 July 1918) was the third daughter of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia and Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna. Her murder following the Russian Revolution of 1917 resulted in her canonization as a passion bearer by the Russian Orthodox Church.


title: Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna of Russia

text: During her lifetime, Maria, too young to become a Red Cross nurse like her elder sisters during World War I, was patroness of a hospital and instead visited wounded soldiers. Throughout her lifetime she was noted for her interest in the lives of the soldiers. The flirtatious Maria had a number of innocent crushes on the young men she met, beginning in early childhood. She hoped to marry and have a large family.


text: She was an elder sister of Grand Duchess Anastasia Nikolaevna of Russia, whose alleged escape from the assassination of the imperial family was rumored for nearly 90 years. However, it was later proven that Anastasia did not escape and that those who claimed to be her were imposters. In the 1990s, it was suggested that Maria might have been the grand duchess whose remains were missing from the Romanov grave that was discovered near Yekaterinburg, Russia and exhumed in 1991. Further remains were discovered in 2007, and DNA analysis subsequently proved that the entire Imperial family had been murdered in 1918. A funeral for the remains of Maria and Alexei to be buried with their family in October 2015 was postponed indefinitely by the Russian Orthodox Church, which took custody of the remains in December and declared without explanation that the case required further study; the 44 partial bone fragments remain stored in a Russian state repository.


text: Maria was born on 26 June 1899. She was the third child and daughter of Emperor Nicholas II and Empress Alexandra. She weighed 4.5 kg at birth. The birth of a third daughter led to widespread disappointment in Russia. Grand Duke Konstantin Konstantinovich, Nicholas' cousin, wrote, "And so there's no Heir. The whole of Russia will be disappointed by this news." Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom, Alexandra's grandmother and Maria's great-grandmother, wrote, "I regret the third girl for the country. I know that an heir would be more welcome than a daughter." Nicholas insisted that he was happy with Maria's birth, and he told Alexandra "I dare complain the least, having such happiness on earth, having a treasure like you my beloved Alix, and already the three little cherubs."


text: At age eleven, Maria apparently developed a painful crush on one of the young men she had met. "Try not to let your thoughts dwell too much on him, that's what our Friend said," Alexandra wrote to her on 6 December 1910. Alexandra advised her third daughter to keep her feelings hidden because others might say unkind things to her about her crush. "One must not let others see what one feels inside, when one knows it's considered not proper. I know he likes you as a little sister and would like to help you not to care too much, because he knows you, a little Grand Duchess, must not care for him so."


text: As a toddler, little Maria once escaped from her bath and ran naked up and down the palace corridor while her distracted Irish nurse, Margaretta Eagar, who loved politics, discussed the Dreyfus Affair with a friend. "Fortunately, I arrived just at that moment, picked her up and carried her back to Miss Eagar, who was still talking about Dreyfus," recalled her aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia.


text: Maria's siblings were Grand Duchess Olga of Russia, Grand Duchess Tatiana of Russia, Grand Duchess Anastasia of Russia, and Tsarevich Alexei of Russia. Maria's Russian title ("Velikaya Knyazhna" Великая Княжна) is most precisely translated as "Grand Princess", meaning that Maria, as an "Imperial Highness" was higher in rank than other Princesses in Europe who were "Royal Highnesses". "Grand Duchess" is the most widely used English translation of the title. However, in keeping with her parents' desire to raise Maria and her siblings simply, even servants addressed the Grand Duchess by her first name and patronym, Maria Nikolaevna. She was also called by the French version of her name, "Marie", or by the Russian nicknames "Masha" or "Mashka".


text: Maria and her younger sister, Anastasia, were known within the family as "The Little Pair". The two girls shared a room, often wore variations of the same dress, and spent much of their time together. Their older sisters, Olga and Tatiana, also shared a room and were known as "The Big Pair". The four girls sometimes signed letters using the nickname OTMA, which was derived from the first letters of their first names.


text: Maria and Anastasia were dressed similarly for special occasions, when they wore variations of the same dress. She tended to be dominated by her enthusiastic and energetic younger sister. When Anastasia tripped people who walked by, teased others or caused a scene with her dramatics, Maria always tried to apologize, though she could never stop her younger sister. Her mother's friend Lili Dehn said that while Maria was not as lively as her three sisters, she knew her own mind.


text: Young Maria enjoyed innocent flirtations with the young soldiers she encountered at the palace and on family holidays. She particularly loved children and, had she not been a Grand Duchess, would have loved nothing more than to marry a Russian soldier and raise a large family. Maria was fond of soldiers from a very early age, according to Margaretta Eagar:


text: Until his own assassination in 1979, her first cousin Louis Mountbatten, 1st Earl Mountbatten of Burma, kept a photograph of Maria beside his bed in memory of the crush he had upon her. In 1910, Louis met the Romanov sisters. He later reflected that "they were lovely, and terribly sweet, far more beautiful than their photographs," and he said that "I was crackers about Marie, and was determined to marry her. She was absolutely lovely."


text: In 1917, Prince Carol of Romania visited Russia. Before he left for Moscow on 26 January, he made a formal proposal for Maria's hand. Nicholas "good-naturedly laughed the Prince's proposal aside" because Maria "was nothing more than a schoolgirl." Queen Marie of Romania was hopeful about "a marriage for Carol with one of Nicky's daughters," and she found the fact that Nicholas considered the match "flattering and... a good sign!"


text: Like her younger sister Anastasia, Maria visited wounded soldiers at a private hospital on the grounds of the palace at Tsarskoye Selo during World War I. The two teenagers, who were too young to become nurses like their mother and elder sisters, played games of checkers and billiards with the soldiers and attempted to uplift their spirits. A wounded soldier named Dmitri signed Maria's commonplace book and addressed her by one of her nicknames: "the famous Mandrifolie".


text: During the war, Maria and Anastasia also paid a visit to a nurses' school and helped to tend to the children. She wrote her father that she thought of him when she was feeding the children and cleaned the gruel running down their chins with a spoon. For a break during the war, Maria, her sisters and mother sometimes visited the Tsar and Tsarevich Alexei at the war headquarters in Mogilev. During these visits, Maria developed an attraction to Nikolai Dmitrievich Demenkov, an officer of the day at the Tsar's Headquarters. When the women returned to Tsarskoye Selo, Maria often asked her father to give her regards to Demenkov and sometimes jokingly signed her letters to the Tsar "Mrs. Demenkov".


text: Maria was a noted beauty. She had light brown hair and large blue eyes that were known in the family as "Marie's saucers." Maria, Duchess of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, Maria's great-aunt, declared that Maria was "a real beauty... with enormous blue eyes." Her mother's friend Lili Dehn wrote that she "was exceeding fair, dowered with the classic beauty of the Romanoffs." A gentleman at the Imperial court said that the infant Maria "had the face of one of Botticelli's angels." Her French tutor Pierre Gilliard said Maria was tall and well-built, with rosy cheeks. Tatiana Botkina thought the expression in Maria's eyes was "soft and gentle". Baroness Sophie Buxhoeveden, her mother's lady-in-waiting, reflected that "[Maria] was like Olga in colouring and features, but all on a more vivid scale. She had the same charming smile, the same shape of face." Sophie Buxhoeveden said that her eyes were "magnificent, of a deep blue," and that "her hair had golden lights in it."


text: Like her grandfather Alexander III of Russia, Maria was unusually strong. She sometimes amused herself by demonstrating how she could lift her tutors off the ground.


text: Maria had a talent for drawing and sketched well, always using her left hand. Maria was uninterested in her schoolwork.


text: Maria could be stubborn and lazy. Her mother complained in one letter that Maria was grumpy and "bellowed" at the people who irritated her. Maria's moodiness coincided with her menstrual period, which the Tsarina and her daughters referred to as a visit from "Madame Becker".


text: Maria had a kind, sweet personality. Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia nicknamed her "The Amiable Baby" because of her good nature.


text: Margaretta Eagar said that "Maria was born good... with the very smallest trace of original sin as possible." According to Eagar, her older sisters Olga and Tatiana once referred to Maria as their "stepsister" because she was so good and never got into trouble. When she stole biscuits from her mother's tea table, Nicholas said that he was relieved "to see she is only a human child" because he "was always afraid of the wings growing."


text: Maria's sisters took advantage of her. Her sisters nicknamed her "fat little bow-wow". In 1910, Maria wrote Alexandra a letter asking to give Olga her own room and allow her to let down her dresses. Maria tried to persuade her mother that it was her own idea to write the letter, including at the end of the letter "P.S. It was my idea to write to you."


text: Maria was very close to her father. Eagar noted that Maria's love for her father was "marked" and she often tried to escape from the nursery to "go to Papa". When Nicholas was ill with typhoid, she covered a miniature portrait of him with kisses every night. As she and her family waited for her father to return to Tsarskoye Selo after his abdication, she grew ill with measles. As she became delirious, she kept repeating, "Oh, I did so want to be up when Papa comes" until she lost consciousness.


text: As the middle child of the family, Maria felt insecure about her role and worried that she was not as loved as her siblings were. She apparently worried that her mother preferred Anastasia to her, as Alexandra sent her a note "I have no secrets with Anastasia, I do not like secrets." Alexandra sent Maria another note: "Sweet child, you must promise me never again to think that nobody loves you. How did such an extraordinary idea get into your little head? Get it quickly out again." Feeling excluded by her older sisters, Maria tried to befriend her cousin Princess Irina Alexandrovna, but Alexandra warned her that this would only make her sisters "imagine... that you do not want to be with them."


text: Maria, like all her family, doted on the long-awaited heir Tsarevich Alexei, or "Baby", who suffered frequent complications of hemophilia and nearly died several times. Her mother relied on the counsel of Grigori Rasputin, a Russian peasant and wandering "starets" or "holy man" and credited his prayers with saving the ailing Tsarevich on numerous occasions. Maria and her siblings were also taught to view Rasputin as "Our Friend" and to share confidences with him. In the autumn of 1907, Maria's aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia was escorted to the nursery by the Tsar to meet Rasputin. Maria, her sisters and brother Alexei were all wearing their long white nightgowns. "All the children seemed to like him," Olga Alexandrovna recalled. "They were completely at ease with him."


text: Rasputin's friendship with the imperial children was evident in the messages he sent to them. "My Dear Pearl M!" Rasputin wrote the nine-year-old Maria in one telegram in 1908. "Tell me how you talked with the sea, with nature! I miss your simple soul. We will see each other soon! A big kiss." In a second telegram, Rasputin told the child, "My Dear M! My Little Friend! May the Lord help you to carry your cross with wisdom and joy in Christ. This world is like the day, look it's already evening. So it is with the cares of the world." In February 1909, Rasputin sent all of the imperial children a telegram, advising them to "Love the whole of God's nature, the whole of His creation in particular this earth. The Mother of God was always occupied with flowers and needlework."


text: One of the girls' governesses, Sofia Ivanovna Tyutcheva, was horrified in 1910 because Rasputin was permitted access to the nursery when the four girls were in their nightgowns. Tyutcheva wanted Rasputin barred from the nurseries. In response to Tyutcheva's complaints, Nicholas did ask Rasputin to end his nursery visits. "I am so afr(aid) that S.I. can speak ... about our friend something bad," Maria's twelve-year-old sister Tatiana wrote to her mother on 8 March 1910, after begging Alexandra to forgive her for doing something she did not like. "I hope our nurse will be nice to our friend now." Alexandra eventually had Tyutcheva fired.


text: Tyutcheva took her story to other members of the family, who were scandalized by the reports, though Rasputin's contacts with the children were by all accounts completely innocent. Nicholas's sister Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna of Russia was horrified by Tyutcheva's story. She wrote on 15 March 1910 that she could not understand "...the attitude of Alix and the children to that sinister Grigory (whom they consider to be almost a saint, when in fact he's only a "khlyst"!) He's always there, goes into the nursery, visits Olga and Tatiana while they are getting ready for bed, sits there talking to them and "caressing" them. They are careful to hide him from Sofia Ivanovna, and the children don't dare talk to her about him. It's all quite unbelievable and beyond understanding."


text: Another of the nursery governesses claimed in the spring of 1910 that she was raped by Rasputin. Maria Ivanovna Vishnyakova had at first been a devotee of Rasputin, but later was disillusioned by him. The empress refused to believe Vishnyakova "and said that everything Rasputin does is holy". Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna was told that Vishnyakova's claim had been immediately investigated, but "they caught the young woman in bed with a Cossack of the Imperial Guard." Vishnyakova was dismissed from her post in 1913.


text: It was whispered in society that Rasputin had seduced not only the Tsarina but also the four grand duchesses. Rasputin had released ardent letters written to him by the Tsarina and the four grand duchesses. The letters circulated throughout society, fueling the rumors. Pornographic cartoons also circulated that depicted Rasputin having sexual relations with the empress, with her four daughters and Anna Vyrubova nude in the background. Nicholas ordered Rasputin to leave St. Petersburg for a time, much to Alexandra's displeasure, and Rasputin went on a pilgrimage to Palestine. Despite the scandal, the imperial family's association with Rasputin continued until Rasputin was murdered on 17 December 1916. "Our Friend is so contented with our girlies, says they have gone through heavy 'courses' for their age and their souls have much developed," Alexandra wrote to Nicholas on 6 December 1916. In his memoirs, A. A. Mordvinov reported that the four grand duchesses appeared "cold and visibly terribly upset" by Rasputin's death and sat "huddled up closely together" on a sofa in one of their bedrooms on the night they received the news. Mordvinov reported that the young women were in a gloomy mood and seemed to sense the political upheaval that was about to be unleashed. Rasputin was buried with an icon signed on its reverse side by Maria, her sisters, and mother. Maria attended Rasputin's funeral on 21 December 1916 and her family planned to build a church over his grave site.


text: Maria, like her mother, was likely a carrier of the hemophilia gene and might have passed on the disease to another generation if she had survived to have the children she dreamed of. One of Alexandra's brothers and two of her nephews, as well as one of her maternal uncles and two children of one of her first cousins were all hemophiliacs, as was Maria's brother Alexei. Maria herself reportedly hemorrhaged in December 1914 during an operation to remove her tonsils, according to her paternal aunt Grand Duchess Olga Alexandrovna of Russia, who was interviewed later in her life. The doctor performing the operation was so unnerved that he had to be ordered to continue by Maria's mother, Tsarina Alexandra. Olga Alexandrovna said she believed all four of her nieces bled more than was normal and believed they were carriers of the hemophilia gene like their mother. Symptomatic carriers of the gene, while not hemophiliacs themselves, can have symptoms of hemophilia including a lower than normal blood clotting factor that can lead to heavy bleeding during childbirth or surgical procedures such as a tonsillectomy. DNA testing on the remains of the royal family proved in 2009 that Alexei suffered from hemophilia B, a rarer form of the disease. The same testing proved that his mother and one of the four Grand Duchesses were carriers. Russians identify the grand duchess who carried the gene as Anastasia, but American scientists identified the young woman as Maria.


text: Revolution broke out in St. Petersburg in the spring of 1917. At the height of the chaos, Maria and her siblings were stricken with measles. The Tsarina was reluctant to move the children to the safety of the imperial residence at Gatchina, even though she was advised to do so. Maria was the last of the five to fall ill and, while she was still healthy, was a major source of support to her mother. Maria went outside with her mother on the night of 13 March 1917 to plead with the soldiers to remain loyal to the imperial family. Shortly afterwards, the seventeen-year-old fell ill with measles and virulent pneumonia and nearly died. She was not told that her father had abdicated the throne until after she began to recover.


text: The family was arrested and imprisoned, first in their home at Tsarskoye Selo and later at residences in Tobolsk and Yekaterinburg in Siberia. Maria attempted to befriend her guards both at Tsarskoye Selo and Tobolsk and soon learned their names and details about their wives and children. Unaware of her danger, she commented at Tobolsk that she would be happy to live there indefinitely if only she could take a walk outside without being guarded continuously. Still, she was aware that she was being watched constantly. Maria and her sister Anastasia burned most of their letters and diaries in April 1918 because they feared their possessions would be searched. None of Anastasia's diaries survived, but three of Maria's are still in existence: one from 1912, one from 1913, and one from 1916.


text: The family had been briefly separated in April 1918 when the Bolsheviks moved Nicholas, Alexandra, and Maria to Yekaterinburg. The girls decided amongst themselves that Maria would go with their parents. Olga was too emotionally unstable to be of much help, level-headed Tatiana was needed to watch over their ill brother, and Anastasia was considered too young. The rest of the children were left behind in Tobolsk because Maria's brother Alexei was ill with a severe hemophilia attack after which he would never walk again. The four other children joined their family in Yekaterinburg several weeks later.


text: In her letters to her siblings in Tobolsk, Maria described her unease at the new restrictions on the family at Yekaterinburg. She and her parents were searched by guards at the Ipatiev House and were warned they would be subject to further searches. A wooden fence was installed around the house, limiting their view of the street. "Oh, how complicated everything is now," she wrote on 2 May 1918. "We lived so peacefully for eight months and now it's all started again." Maria passed the time by attempting to befriend members of the Ipatiev House Guard. She showed them pictures from her photo albums and talked with them about their families and her own hopes for a new life in England if she was released. Alexander Strekotin, one of the guards, recalled in his memoirs that she "was a girl who loved to have fun". Another of the guards recalled Maria's buxom beauty with appreciation and said she did not assume an air of grandeur. One former sentry recalled that Maria was often scolded by her mother in "severe and angry whispers", apparently for being too friendly with the guards at Yekaterinburg. Strekotin wrote that their conversations always began with one of the girls saying, "We're so bored! In Tobolsk there was always something to do. I know! Try to guess the name of this dog!" The teenage girls walked by the sentries, whispering and giggling in a manner that the guards considered flirtatious.


text: In his memoirs, one guard recalled that on one occasion another guard forgot himself and told an off-color joke to the grand duchesses during one of these meetings. The offended Tatiana ran from the room, "pale as death". Maria eyed the man and said, "Why are you not disgusted with yourselves when you use such shameful words? Do you imagine that you can woo a well-born woman with such witticisms and have her be well disposed towards you? Be refined and respectable men and then we can get along." Ivan Kleschev, a 21-year-old guard, declared that he intended to marry one of the grand duchesses and if her parents said no he would rescue her from the Ipatiev House himself.


text: It has been alleged by Greg King and Penny Wilson that Ivan Skorokhodov, yet another of the guards, smuggled in a birthday cake to celebrate Maria's nineteenth birthday on 26 June 1918. They continued in their claim that Maria slipped away from the group with Ivan Skorokhodov for a private moment and they were discovered together in a compromising position when two of his superiors conducted a surprise inspection of the house. They further alleged Shorokhodov was removed from his position after his actions and friendliness towards the grand duchess were discovered by his commanding officers and that several guards reported that both the Tsarina and her older sister Olga appeared angry with Maria in the days following the incident and that Olga avoided her company.


text: However, the claim has been contested by Helen Azar and George Hawkins (based on information provided by Margarita Nelipa), who dismiss the story as a myth being based in "absolutely no first-hand evidence". The authors' note that the story seems to originate from proven unreliable accounts of the executioner Peter Ermakov. Shorokhodov, in fact, left the Ipatiev House due to "illness and hospitalization rather than dismissal". They further report that any minor violation by the guards would result in being imprisoned in a local jail, adding to the unlikeness of the story. Moreover, Azar and Hawkins note there is no evidence of Alexandra and Olga being angry with Maria, reporting the myth stems from a misconstrued passage in the Yurovsky note. The original note, in place of an alleged implication that an "imperial soul" needed passage for inappropriate behavior, reports that the Deacon actually said "This is what happened before and not with such important people. If one messed it up, it can cause a scandal, but in this situation, we can sort it out in good spirit." This was in response to Yurovsky telling the Deacon that he could perform service but not converse with the imperial family. Consequently, the passage cited by King and Wilson as evidence of Maria being shunned is based on nothing more "than perhaps faulty translation in the original publication that referenced the alleged incident".


text: On 14 July 1918, local priests at Yekaterinburg conducted a private church service for the family and reported that Maria and her family, contrary to custom, fell on their knees during the prayer for the dead. The following day, on 15 July, Maria and her sisters appeared in good spirits as they joked with one another and moved the beds in their room so visiting cleaning women could scrub the floor. They got down on their hands and knees to help the women and whispered to them when the guards were not looking. All four young women wore long black skirts and white silk blouses, the same clothing they had worn the previous day. Their short hair was "tumbled and disorderly". They boasted that Maria was so strong she could lift Alexei and told the women how much they enjoyed physical exertion and wished there was more of it for them to do in the Ipatiev House. On the afternoon of 16 July 1918, the last full day of her life, Maria walked in the garden with her father and sisters and the guards observed nothing unusual in the family's spirits. As the family was eating dinner that night, Yakov Yurovsky, the head of the detachment, came in and announced that the family's kitchen boy and Alexei's playmate, 14-year-old Leonid Sednev, must gather his things and go to a family member. The boy had actually been sent to a hotel across the street because the guards did not want to kill him along with the rest of the Romanov party. The family, unaware of the plan to kill them, was upset and unsettled by Sednev's absence, which came after five other members of their detachment had already been sent away. Dr. Botkin and Tatiana went that evening to Yurovsky's office, for what was to be the last time, to ask for the return of the kitchen boy who kept Alexei amused during the long hours of captivity. Yurovsky placated them by telling her the boy would return soon, but the family was unconvinced.


text: Late that night, on the night of 16 July, the family was awakened and told to come down to the lower level of the house because there was unrest in the town at large and they would have to be moved for their own safety. The family emerged from their rooms carrying pillows, bags, and other items to make Alexandra and Alexei comfortable. Anastasia carried one of the family's three dogs, a King Charles Spaniel named Jimmy. The family paused and crossed themselves when they saw the stuffed mother bear and cubs that stood on the landing, perhaps as a sign of respect for the dead. Nicholas told the servants and family "Well, we're going to get out of this place." They asked questions of the guards but did not appear to suspect they were going to be killed. Yurovsky, who had been a professional photographer, directed the family to take different positions as a photographer might. Alexandra, who had requested chairs for herself and Alexei, sat to her son's left. The Tsar stood behind Alexei, Dr. Botkin stood to the Tsar's right, Maria and her sisters stood behind Alexandra along with the servants. They were left for approximately half an hour while further preparations were made. The group said little during this time, but Alexandra whispered to the girls in English, violating the guard's rules that they must speak in Russian. Yurovsky came in, ordered them to stand, and read the sentence of execution. Maria and her family had time only to utter a few incoherent sounds of shock or protest before the death squad under Yurovsky's command began shooting. It was the early hours of 17 July 1918.


text: The first volley of gunfire killed the Tsar, the Empress and two male servants, and wounded the family's doctor and the empress' maidservant. Maria tried to escape through the doors at the rear of the room, which led to a storage area, but the doors were nailed shut. The noise as she rattled the doors attracted the attention of the drunken military commissar Peter Ermakov. A heavy layer of smoke had accumulated in the room from the gunfire and from plaster dust released from the walls by errant bullets, and the gunmen could see only the lower bodies of those who were still alive. Ermakov fired at Maria, and his bullet struck her in the thigh. She fell to the floor with Anastasia and Demidova and lay there moaning. The assassins then left the room for several minutes to let the haze clear, and when they returned they killed Dr Botkin, Tsarevich Alexei and Grand Duchesses Olga and Tatiana. Ermakov then turned on the wounded Maria and Anastasia, who was still unharmed. He struggled with Maria and tried to stab her with a bayonet. The jewels sewn into her clothes protected her, and he said he finally shot her in the head. But the skull that is almost certainly Maria's has no bullet wound. Perhaps the drunken Ermakov inflicted a scalp wound, knocking her unconscious and producing a considerable flow of blood, leading Ermakov to think he had killed her. He then struggled with Anastasia, whom he also claimed he shot in the head. As the bodies were being removed from the house, Maria and Anastasia regained consciousness and screamed. Ermakov tried to stab her again but failed, and struck her in the face until she was silent. The facial area of Maria's skull was indeed destroyed, but Yurovsky wrote that the victims' faces were shattered with rifle butts at the burial site. Though Maria unquestionably died with her family, the exact cause of her death remains a mystery.


text: For decades (until all the bodies were found and identified, see below) conspiracy theorists suggested that one or more of the family somehow survived the slaughter. Several people claimed to be surviving members of the Romanov family following the assassinations.


text: According to the conspiracists, there may have been an opportunity for one or more of the guards to rescue a supposed survivor(s). Yurovsky demanded that the guards come to his office and turn over items they had stolen following the assassinations. There was reportedly a span of time when the bodies of the victims were left largely unattended in the truck, in the basement, and in the corridor of the house. Some guards who had not participated in the murders and had been sympathetic to the grand duchesses were left in the basement with the bodies.


text: At least two of the Grand Duchesses were speculated to have survived the initial attack on the Imperial Family. Two of the Grand Duchesses, Maria and Anastasia, "sat up screaming" when they were being carried out to a waiting truck. They were then attacked again. There were claims made that Maria survived. A man named Alex Brimeyer claimed to be Maria's grandson "Prince Alexis d'Anjou de Bourbon-Condé Romanov-Dolgoruky". He said Maria had escaped to Romania, married and had a daughter, Olga-Beata. Olga-Beata then allegedly married and had a son named "Prince Alexis". Brimeyer was sentenced to 18 months in prison by a Belgian court after he was sued in 1971 by the Dolgoruky family and the Association of Descendants of the Russian Nobility of Belgium. Two young women who claimed to be Maria and her sister Anastasia were taken in by a priest in the Ural Mountains in 1919, where they lived as nuns until their deaths in 1964. They were buried under the names Anastasia and Maria Nikolaevna.


text: As late as 2004, Gabriel Louis Duval wrote a book, "A Princess in the Family", claiming that his foster grandmother "Granny Alina" might have been the Grand Duchess Maria. According to Duval, Granny Alina married a man named Frank and emigrated to South Africa. She later lived with his family before dying in 1969. Her body was exhumed, but DNA was too degraded to be useful in determining whether she shared DNA with the imperial family. Most historians continued (later proven right) to discount the claims that Maria or any other member of the family survived the killings.


text: In 1991, bodies believed to be those of the Imperial Family and their servants were finally exhumed from a mass grave in the woods outside Yekaterinburg. The grave had been found nearly a decade earlier, but was kept hidden by its discoverers from the Communists who still ruled Russia when the grave was originally found. Once the grave was opened, the excavators realized that instead of eleven sets of remains (Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, Tsarevitch Alexei, the four Grand Duchesses, Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia; the family's doctor, Yevgeny Botkin; their valet, Alexei Trupp; their cook, Ivan Kharitonov; and Alexandra's maid, Anna Demidova) the grave held only nine. Alexei and, according to the late forensic expert Dr. William Maples, Anastasia were missing from the family's grave. Russian scientists contested this, however, and claimed it was Maria's body that was missing. The Russians identified Anastasia by using a computer program to compare photos of the youngest Grand Duchess with the skulls of the victims from the mass grave. They estimated the height and width of the skulls where pieces of bone were missing. American scientists found this method inexact. A Russian forensic expert said none of the skulls attributed to the Grand Duchesses had a gap between the front teeth as Maria did.


text: American scientists thought the missing body to be Anastasia because none of the female skeletons showed the evidence of immaturity, such as an immature collarbone, undescended wisdom teeth, or immature vertebrae in the back, that they would have expected to find in the seventeen-year-old Anastasia. In 1998, when the bodies of the Imperial Family were finally interred, a body measuring approximately 5 feet 7 inches was buried under the name of Anastasia. Photographs taken of the four sisters up until six months before the murders demonstrate that Maria was several inches taller than Anastasia and was also taller than her sister Olga. However, the heights of the skeletons had to be estimated because some of the bones had been cut and portions of the skeletons were missing. Since teeth and large portions of the jaw were missing in several of the skeletons, the Russian scientists' assertion that Anastasia's remains rather than those of Maria were in the grave because none of the skeletons had a gap between the front teeth also appeared questionable to American scientists.


text: The mitochondrial DNA from the skeletons was compared against mitochondrial DNA from relatives of the imperial family in the maternal line of descent, including the Tsarina's great-nephew Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, and was found to be a match. Scientists believed that the matching DNA was enough to identify the remains of the Imperial Family and their servants. The "Yurovsky Note", a report filed by commander Yakov Yurovsky with his superiors following the murders, stated that two of the bodies were removed from the main grave and cremated at an undisclosed area. If the Whites ever discovered the grave, Yurovsky believed they would doubt the grave belonged to the Tsar and his retinue because the body count would be incorrect. Some forensic experts believe the complete burning of two bodies in so short a time would have been impossible given the environment and materials possessed by Yurovsky and his men. Initial searches of the area in subsequent years failed to turn up a cremation site or the remains of the two missing Romanov children.


text: However, on 23 August 2007, a Russian archaeologist announced the discovery of two burned, partial skeletons at a bonfire site near Yekaterinburg that appeared to match the site described in Yurovsky's memoirs. The archaeologists said the bones were from a boy who was roughly between the ages of twelve and fifteen years at the time of his death and of a young woman who was roughly between the ages of fifteen and nineteen years old. Maria was nineteen years, one month old at the time of the assassinations while her sister Anastasia was seventeen years, one month old and her brother Alexei was less than a month shy of his fourteenth birthday. Maria's elder sisters Olga and Tatiana were twenty-two and twenty-one years old at the time of the assassinations. Along with the remains of the two bodies, archaeologists found "shards of a container of sulfuric acid, nails, metal strips from a wooden box, and bullets of various caliber". The bones were found using metal detectors and metal rods as probes.


text: Preliminary testing indicated a "high degree of probability" that the remains belong to the Tsarevich Alexei and to one of his sisters, Russian forensic scientists announced on 22 January 2008. The testing began in late December 2007. On 30 April 2008, Russian forensic scientists announced that DNA testing proves that the remains belong to the Tsarevich Alexei and to a young woman the Russians continue to identify as Maria. Eduard Rossel, governor of the region 900 miles east of Moscow, said tests done by a U.S. laboratory had identified the shards as those of Alexei and Maria. In March 2009, results of the DNA testing were published, confirming that the two bodies discovered in 2007 were those of Tsarevich Alexei and one of the four Grand Duchesses.


text: On 11 September 2015, it was announced that the remains of Maria and Alexei, which had been in storage in the state archives for 8 years, were to be buried alongside their family on 18 October 2015. However, the Russian Government has given the Russian Orthodox Church permission to do one last DNA test of the two Romanov children against DNA from a blood stained cloth from their great-grandfather Emperor Alexander II, who was killed by a bomb, and their aunt Grand Duchess Elizabeth Feodorovna.


text: Nicholas II and Alexandra Feodorovna (Alix of Hesse) were exhumed from their tombs in September 2015 to confirm links to other relatives. This test was done so the Church and a branch of the Romanov line could set aside their doubts. The burial of what now are considered to be Maria's and Alexei's remains, to be with those of the family, was planned for 2015 but has been delayed mainly due to the insistence of the Russian Orthodox Church on more DNA-testing.


text: In 2000, Maria and her family were canonized as passion bearers by the Russian Orthodox Church. The family had previously been canonized in 1981 by the Russian Orthodox Church Abroad as holy martyrs. The bodies of Tsar Nicholas II, Tsarina Alexandra, and three of their daughters were finally interred at St. Peter and Paul Cathedral in St. Petersburg on 17 July 1998, eighty years after they were murdered.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Colorado Rockies are an American professional baseball team based in Denver. The Rockies compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) West division. The team plays its home baseball games at Coors Field, which is located in the Lower Downtown area of Denver. It is owned by the Monfort brothers and managed by Bud Black.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies began as an expansion team for the 1993 season and played their home games for their first two seasons at Mile High Stadium. Since 1995, they have played at Coors Field, which has earned a reputation as a hitter's park. The Rockies have qualified for the postseason five times, each time as a Wild Card winner. In 2007, the team earned its first (and only) NL pennant after winning 14 of their final 15 games in the regular season to secure a Wild Card position, capping the streak off with a 13-inning 9-8 victory against the San Diego Padres in the tiebreaker game affectionately known as "Game 163" by Rockies fans. The Rockies then proceeded to sweep the Philadelphia Phillies and Arizona Diamondbacks in the NLDS and NLCS and entered the 2007 World Series as winners of 21 of their last 22 games. They were swept by the American League (AL) champions Boston Red Sox in four games.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Denver had long been a hotbed of Denver Bears / Zephyrs minor league baseball as far back as the late 19th century with the original Denver Bears (or Grizzlies) competing in the Western League before being replaced in 1955 by a AAA team of the same name. Residents and businesses in the area desired a Major League team. Denver's Mile High Stadium was built originally as Denver Bears Stadium, a minor league baseball stadium that could be upgraded to major league standards. Several previous attempts to bring Major League Baseball to Colorado had failed. In 1958, New York lawyer William Shea proposed the new Continental League as a rival to the two existing major leagues. In 1960, the Continental League announced that play would begin in April 1961 with eight teams, including one in Denver headed by Bob Howsam. The new league quickly evaporated, without ever playing a game, when the National League reached expansion agreements to put teams in New York City and Houston, removing much of the impetus behind the Continental League effort. Following the Pittsburgh drug trials in 1985, an unsuccessful attempt was made to purchase the Pittsburgh Pirates and relocate them. However, in January 1990, Colorado's chances for a new team improved when Coors Brewing Company became a limited partner with the AAA Denver Zephyrs.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In 1991, as part of Major League Baseball's two-team expansion (along with the Florida (now Miami) Marlins), an ownership group representing Denver led by John Antonucci and Michael I. Monus was granted a franchise. They took the name "Rockies" due to Denver's proximity to the Rocky Mountains, which is reflected in their logo; the name was previously used by the city's first NHL team (now the New Jersey Devils). Monus and Antonucci were forced to drop out in 1992 after Monus's reputation was ruined by an accounting scandal. Trucking magnate Jerry McMorris stepped in at the 11th hour to save the franchise, allowing the team to begin play in 1993. The Rockies shared Mile High Stadium with the National Football League (NFL)'s Denver Broncos for their first two seasons while Coors Field was constructed. It was completed for the 1995 Major League Baseball season.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In 1993, they began in the West division of the National League. That year the Rockies set the all-time Major League record for attendance, drawing an incredible 4,483,350 fans (a record that stands to this day). The Rockies were MLB's first team based in the Mountain Time Zone. They have reached the Major League Baseball postseason five times, each time as the National League wild card team. Twice (1995 and 2009), they were eliminated in the first round of the playoffs. In 2007, the Rockies advanced to the World Series, only to be swept by the Boston Red Sox. The team's stretch run was among the greatest ever for a Major League Baseball team. Having a record of 76-72 at the start of play on September 16, the Rockies proceeded to win 14 of their final 15 regular season games. The stretch culminated with a 9-8, 13-inning victory over the San Diego Padres in a one-game playoff for the wild card berth. Colorado then swept their first seven playoff games to win the NL pennant (thus, at the start of the World Series, the Rockies had won a total of 21 out of 22 games). Fans and media nicknamed their improbable run in October, Rocktober.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Colorado made postseason berths in 2017 and 2018. In 2018, the Rockies became the first team since the 1922 Philadelphia Phillies to play in four cities against four teams in five days, including the 162nd game of the regular season, NL West tie-breaker, NL Wild Card Game and NLDS Game 1, eventually losing to the Milwaukee Brewers in the NLDS.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Like their expansion brethren, the Miami Marlins, they have never won a division title since their establishment and they, along with the Pittsburgh Pirates are also one of three MLB teams that have never won their current division. The Rockies have played their home games at Coors Field since 1995. Their newest spring training home, Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in Scottsdale, Arizona, opened in March 2011 and is shared with the Arizona Diamondbacks.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: On June 1, 2006, "USA Today" reported that Rockies management, including manager Clint Hurdle, had instituted an explicitly Christian code of conduct for the team's players, banning men's magazines (such as "Maxim" and "Playboy") and sexually explicit music from the team's clubhouse. The article sparked controversy, and soon-after "The Denver Post" published an article featuring many Rockies players contesting the claims made in the "USA Today" article. Former Rockies pitcher Jason Jennings said: "[The article in USA Today] was just bad. I am not happy at all. Some of the best teammates I have ever had are the furthest thing from Christian", Jennings said. "You don't have to be a Christian to have good character. They can be separate. [The article] was misleading."


title: Colorado Rockies

text: On October 17, 2007, a week before the first game of the 2007 World Series against the Boston Red Sox, the Colorado Rockies announced that tickets were to be available to the general public via online sales only, despite prior arrangements to sell the tickets at local retail outlets. Five days later on October 22, California-based ticket vendor Paciolan, Inc., the sole contractor authorized by the Colorado Rockies to distribute tickets, was forced to suspend sales after less than an hour due to an overwhelming number of attempts to purchase tickets. An official release from the baseball organization claimed that they were the victims of a denial of service attack. These claims, however, were unsubstantiated and neither the Rockies nor Paciolan have sought investigation into the matter. The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation started its own investigation into the claims. Ticket sales resumed the next day, with all three home games selling out within two and a half hours.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In March 2021, Ken Rosenthal and Nick Groke reported in "The Athletic" that, during the season, the Rockies had made baseball operations personnel work as clubhouse attendants in addition to their front office duties, resulting in work days lasting up to 17 hours. Former staffers described doing laundry for players while team personnel asked them for scouting and statistical information. The article further described a general atmosphere of dysfunction and unaccountability in Colorado's front office. General manager Jeff Bridich resigned the following month.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: One of the Rockies' team colors is purple which was inspired by the line "For purple mountain majesties" in "America the Beautiful." The shades of the color used by the ball club lacked uniformity until PMS 2685 was established as the official purple beginning with the 2017 season.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies' home uniform is white with purple pinstripes, and the Rockies are the first team in Major League history to wear purple pinstripes. The front of the uniform is emblazoned with the team name in silver trimmed in black, and letters and numerals are in black trimmed in silver. During the Rockies' inaugural season, they went without names on the back of their home uniforms, but added them for the following season. In 2000, numerals were added to the chest.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies' road uniform is grey with purple piping. The front of the uniform originally featured the team name in silver trimmed in purple, but was changed the next season to purple with white trim. Letters and numerals are in purple with white trim. In the 2000 season, piping was replaced with pinstripes, "Colorado" was emblazoned in front, chest numerals were placed, and black trim was added to the letters. Prior to the 2012 season, the Rockies brought back the purple piping on their road uniforms, but kept the other elements of their 2000 uniform change.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies originally wore an alternate black uniform during their maiden 1993 season, but for only a few games. The uniform featured the team name in silver with purple trim, and letters and numerals in purple with white trim. In the 2005 season, the Rockies started wearing black sleeveless alternate uniforms, featuring "Colorado", letters and numerals in silver with purple and white trim. The uniforms also included black undershirts, and for a few games in 2005, purple undershirts.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: From 2002 to 2011, the Rockies wore alternate versions of their pinstriped white uniform, featuring the interlocking "CR" on the left chest and numerals on the right chest. This design featured sleeves until 2004, when they went with a vest design with black undershirts.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In addition to the black sleeveless alternate uniform, the Rockies also wear a purple alternate uniform, which they first unveiled in the 2000 season. The design featured "Colorado" in silver with black and white trim, and letters and numerals in black with white trim. At the start of the 2012 season, the Rockies introduced "Purple Mondays" in which the team wears its purple uniform every Monday game day, though the team continued to wear them on other days of the week.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Prior to 2019, the Rockies always wore their white pinstriped pants regardless of what uniform top they wore during home games. However, the Rockies have since added alternate white non-pinstriped pants to pair with either their black or purple alternate uniforms at home, as neither uniform contained pinstripes.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies currently wear an all-black cap with "CR" in purple trimmed in silver and a purple-brimmed variation as an alternate. The team previously wore an all-purple cap with "CR" in black trimmed in silver, and in the 2018 season, caps with the "CR" in silver to commemorate the team's 25th anniversary.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In 2022, the Rockies were one of seven additional teams to don Nike's "City Connect" uniforms. The set is predominantly green and white with printed mountain range motifs adorning the chest. The lettering was taken from the official Colorado license plates. The right sleeve has a yellow patch featuring the shortened nickname "ROX", the "5280" sign representing the altitude of Denver, two black diamonds representing Double Diamond skiing, and the exact longitude and latitude of Coors Field. The left sleeve has the interlocking "CR" in white with green trim, and purple piping was added to represent purple seats at Coors Field. Caps are green with a white panel, featuring a "CO" patch with various Colorado-inspired symbols, including colors from the state flag and mountain ranges.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In 2020, Larry Walker was the first Colorado Rockies player to be inducted to the Baseball Hall of Fame.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Todd Helton is the first Colorado player to have his number (17) retired, which was done on Sunday, August 17, 2014.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: Keli McGregor had worked with the Rockies since their inception in 1993, rising from senior director of operations to team president in 2002, until his death on April 20, 2010. He is honored at Coors Field alongside Helton, Walker, and Robinson with his initials.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: The Rockies led MLB attendance records for the first seven years of their existence. The inaugural season is currently the MLB all-time record for home attendance.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: As of 2010, Rockies' flagship radio station is KOA 850AM, with some late-season games broadcast on KHOW 630 AM due to conflicts with Denver Broncos games. The Rockies Radio Network is composed of 38 affiliate stations in eight states.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: As of 2019, Jack Corrigan and Jerry Schemmel are the radio announcers, serving as a backup TV announcer whenever Drew Goodman is not available.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: In January 2020, long-time KOA radio announcer Jerry Schemmel was let go from his role for budgetary reasons from KOA’s parent company. He returned in 2022, replacing Mike Rice, who reportedly refused the COVID-19 vaccine.


title: Colorado Rockies

text: As of 2013, all games are produced and televised by AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain. All 150 games produced by AT&T SportsNet Rocky Mountain are broadcast in HD. Jeff Huson and Drew Goodman are the usual TV broadcast team, with Ryan Spilborghs and Kelsey Wingert handling on-field coverage and clubhouse interviews. Jenny Cavnar, Jason Hirsh, and Cory Sullivan handle the pre-game and post-game shows. Corrigan, Spilborghs, Cavnar, and Sullivan also fill in as play-by-play or color commentator during absences of Huson or Goodman.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Antonio Maria Giovinazzi (; born 14 December 1993) is an Italian racing driver who currently serves as the reserve driver for Scuderia Ferrari, Haas and Alfa Romeo Racing. He was the 2015 FIA Formula 3 European Championship runner-up and raced with Prema in the 2016 GP2 Series, again finishing runner-up with five wins and eight overall podiums. He made his competitive debut for Sauber at the 2017 Australian Grand Prix, replacing the injured Pascal Wehrlein. He also replaced Wehrlein at the following Chinese Grand Prix as Wehrlein continued his recovery. Giovinazzi raced in F1 for Alfa Romeo Racing from 2019 to 2021.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi began karting in 2000. In 2006, he became the champion in the Italian National Trophy 60cc and Euro Trophy 60 championships. He was champion of the WSK Master Series in the KF2 class in both 2010 and 2011.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi began his single seater career by competing in Formula Pilota China in 2012. He finished as the overall champion in his debut season with a total of six wins. He also raced for the BVM team in the last round of the 2012 Formula Abarth season at Monza. Despite winning two races and finishing in second place in one, he did not receive any points since he was a guest driver.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi competed in the 2013 British Formula Three Championship season with the Double R Racing team, alongside Sean Gelael and Tatiana Calderón. He won two races, at Silverstone and at Spa-Francorchamps, and ended the season as runner-up behind Jordan King. During the season, Giovinazzi entered the 2013 Masters of Formula 3, finishing the race in 10th place.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: In 2013, Giovinazzi made his debut in the FIA Formula 3 European Championship with the Double R Racing team. He scored his first points at the fourth round in Brands Hatch, finishing 11th in the first race. His best result of the season was at the final race in Hockenheim, where he finished 6th. Giovinazzi ended the season in 15th place in the championship with 45 points.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: In 2014, Giovinazzi signed with Jagonya Ayam with Carlin to compete in the 2014 FIA Formula 3 European Championship season. His first Formula 3 podium came with a 2nd-place finish in Hockenheim. His first win came from pole position at the Red Bull Ring, before adding another win at the following round at the Nürburgring. He ended the season in 6th place in the standings with 238 points, recording two wins, seven podium finishes, two pole positions and three fastest laps.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi continued in the championship with Jagonya Agam with Carlin in 2015, in a field which included future Formula One competitors Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll, George Russell and Alexander Albon. He was a championship contender for much of the season, eventually losing out to Felix Rosenqvist. Giovinazzi ended the season as the championship runner-up, with 412.5 points. He recorded six wins, twenty podium finishes, four pole positions and four fastest laps. During the 2015 season he made his second appearance at the Masters of Formula 3 race, winning the race after starting from 2nd on the grid.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: After the end of his European Formula 3 season, Giovinazzi entered the non-championship 2015 Macau Grand Prix with Carlin, qualifying in 4th place. In the qualifying race, he caused a multi-car pile up on the first lap after colliding with Daniel Juncadella. Giovinazzi went on to win the qualifying race, but was later handed a 20-second penalty for the incident, demoting him to 10th. At the main event, he recovered to finish in 4th place.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi had impressed Audi Sport Team Phoenix during a DTM test in 2015, before being called up to replace the suspended Timo Scheider for the round at Moscow Raceway during the 2015 DTM season. He finished the races in 19th and 21st.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: In 2016, Giovinazzi took part in the Asian Le Mans Series in the LMP2 class alongside Sean Gelael. They entered the final two rounds at Buriram and Sepang, winning both races. Giovinazzi then entered the Silverstone round of the European Le Mans Series alongside Gelael and Mitch Evans for SMP Racing, in which they came 5th.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: In the FIA World Endurance Championship, Giovinazzi took part in the 2016 6 Hours of Fuji alongside Gelael and Giedo van der Garde for the Extreme Speed Motorsports team, in which they finished 4th in the LMP2 class. He then took part in the following round in Shanghai alongside Gelael and Tom Blomqvist, finishing 2nd.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: He took part at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans driving a Ferrari 488 GTE for AF Corse Ferrari factory team alongside Toni Vilander and Pipo Derani. He finished the race 5th in GTE category.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi joined the series with Prema Powerteam for the 2016 season alongside Red Bull Junior and 2014 Formula Renault 3.5 Series runner-up Pierre Gasly.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: After a poor start by finishing outside the points and losing reverse grid pole in the first two rounds, Giovinazzi scored victories in both the feature and sprint races in Baku, becoming the first driver to do 'the double' since Davide Valsecchi in 2012.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi took pole position from his teammate Gasly at Spa, and won the Sprint Race after Gasly had won the feature race on Saturday. At Monza, he took pole position, but was disqualified from the session due to a technical infringement. Despite starting from the back of the grid, he won in the Feature Race after a mix up involving the safety car that worked in his favour.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi took the lead of the championship at Sepang by overtaking Sergey Sirotkin late on for his 5th win of the season. However, Pierre Gasly's victory in the Abu Dhabi feature race meant that Gasly led by 12 points into the final race. Giovinazzi finished the final race ahead of Gasly as Alex Lynn won the race, however, after making a poor start, he was unable to overturn the 12-point gap, and Gasly won the championship by 8 points.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Had Giovinazzi won the championship, he would have been the first rookie champion since Nico Hülkenberg in 2009. He would also have been the last GP2 champion as the series would become FIA Formula 2 Championship for .


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: On 5 September 2016, it was announced that Giovinazzi would perform simulator work for Scuderia Ferrari. In December, he was confirmed as Ferrari's third driver.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi participated in pre-season testing for the season with Sauber. In a similar fashion to his DTM debut two years prior, he substituted for the injured Pascal Wehrlein at the . Wehrlein did not feel fit enough for a complete race distance due to his training deficit as a result of a crash at the 2017 Race of Champions. Giovinazzi finished 12th on his debut. His debut meant he was the first Italian driver to start a Formula One race since Jarno Trulli and Vitantonio Liuzzi at the 2011 Brazilian Grand Prix. Sauber announced that Giovinazzi would again replace Wehrlein for the , where he crashed out during both qualifying and the race.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi later participated in seven free practice sessions for the Haas F1 Team over the course of the 2017 season. Giovinazzi remained a reserve and test driver for Sauber and Ferrari in . He took part in six free practice sessions for Sauber during the season.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi drove for Alfa Romeo during the season, partnering Kimi Räikkönen and replacing Marcus Ericsson, who became the team's reserve driver.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi went eight races without scoring points until he scored his first at the , finishing 10th. It was the first points finish for an Italian driver in Formula One since Vitantonio Liuzzi finished sixth at the 2010 Korean Grand Prix. The next race in Britain saw his first retirement of the season, after a mechanical problem caused him to spin out into a gravel trap. He crashed out on the last lap of the , having been running in ninth place. It later emerged that the crash caused Alfa Romeo to consider Giovinazzi's future with the team, with team principal Frédéric Vasseur saying "We had a tough discussion with Antonio, because these kind of things can decide your career. We were thinking about the future." At this stage of the season, Giovinazzi had collected one point, whilst teammate Räikkönen had scored 31.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: The second half of the season was more successful for Giovinazzi. He claimed points a week after the Belgian Grand Prix with a ninth-place finish at his first home race in Formula One. On lap 27 of the , Giovinazzi led the race for four laps after the leaders had pitted. It was the first time he had led a Formula One Grand Prix race in his career. For Alfa Romeo, it was the first time since Andrea de Cesaris led in the 1983 Belgian Grand Prix. Giovinazzi ultimately finished 10th, scoring points for the second consecutive race. At the , he achieved his career best finish, crossing the line in sixth place before being promoted to fifth after Lewis Hamilton was penalised. Giovinazzi ended the season in 17th place in the championship with 14 points.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi scored points at the first race of the season in Austria, qualifying 18th but finishing ninth after nine other cars retired from the race. On lap 11 of the , Giovinazzi lost control and crashed at turn 14. A stray wheel from his car hit the Williams of George Russell, causing both to retire from the race. He was involved in a high-speed accident at the during the safety car restart, in which four cars were eliminated from the race. Two point-scoring finishes came at the , where he held off the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel to finish tenth, and at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, where he scored another tenth-placed finish after starting from last on the grid. At the , Giovinazzi reached the third qualifying session (Q3) for the first time since the 2019 Austrian Grand Prix, qualifying 10th. He went on to retire from the race with gearbox problems.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi ended the season in 17th place in the drivers' championship. He scored four points, the same number as teammate Räikkönen, however Räikkönen placed above Giovinazzi by virtue of having more ninth-placed finishes. Giovinazzi outqualified Räikkönen at nine of the season's 17 races.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi and Räikkönen were retained by Alfa Romeo for the season. Giovinazzi qualified 10th for the , his first Q3 appearance of the year. He finished the race in 10th place, scoring Alfa Romeo's first point of the season. He would follow this up with eleventh in Azerbaijan.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi left Alfa Romeo at the end of the 2021 season, and became reserve driver for Ferrari, sharing the duties with Mick Schumacher. Giovinazzi is also due to act as reserve driver for Alfa Romeo and Haas (Ferrari's customer teams) as part of his contract with Ferrari.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: In September 2022, Giovinazzi participated in a test at the Fiorano circuit with the Ferrari SF21 together with the Russian-Israeli driver Robert Shwartzman, in order to prepare them both for free practice sessions throughout the season.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: Giovinazzi is a test driver for Haas in 2022, and competed in free practice sessions at the Italian and United States Grands Prix for the team, though in the latter session the Italian could only run four laps before crashing and would not take further part in that practice. He later apologised to his team, which likely dented his chances of returning to F1 full-time for 2023. He took part in a test session with Alpine at the Hungaroring in late September, alongside Nyck de Vries and Jack Doohan.


title: Antonio Giovinazzi

text: After being set to lose his full-time seat in Formula One, Giovinazzi was signed by Dragon Penske Autosport to drive alongside Sérgio Sette Câmara in the 2021–22 Formula E World Championship. He was ruled out of the final race in Seoul due to a thumb injury, caused by contact with Alexander Sims. Giovinazzi finished 23rd in the championship with no points, being the only full-time driver to fail to score points. Giovinazzi left the team as they rebranded to DS Penske, with Stoffel Vandoorne and Jean-Éric Vergne replacing him and teammate Sette Câmara for the 2022-23 season.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: MGM Resorts International is an American global hospitality and entertainment company operating destination resorts in Las Vegas, Massachusetts, Detroit, Mississippi, Maryland, and New Jersey, including Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, MGM Grand, and Park MGM.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The company began operations in 1987 as MGM Grand, Inc. and became MGM Mirage in 2000, after acquiring Mirage Resorts. In the mid-2000s, growth of its non-gaming (lodging, food, retail) revenue began to outpace gaming receipts and demand for high-rise condominiums was surging, with median property prices in Las Vegas twice the national average. The company shifted its focus from owning and operating resorts and casinos to developing and building real estate in the leisure and gaming industry—launching the massive CityCenter mixed-use project, which was at the time of its construction the world's largest construction site and ranks as one of the most expensive real estate projects in history. City Center's development coincided with the global financial crisis, causing more than $1 billion in writedowns in its valuation.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: Billionaire investor Kirk Kerkorian and his Tracinda Corporation were, until 2009, the majority shareholders of MGM Mirage; Kerkorian was the former owner of the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer movie studio, from which MGM Grand derived its name. Following a $1 billion stock offering by MGM Mirage amidst the global credit crunch, Tracinda's shares were diluted from 53.8 percent to 39 percent. On June 15, 2010, shareholders voted for MGM Mirage to change its name to "MGM Resorts International".


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In 2015, the company split into two forming MGM Growth Properties, a real estate company, while MGM resorts shifted to operating properties.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The company's background can be traced to 1969, when airline and casino tycoon Kirk Kerkorian bought a controlling stake in the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) film studio. In 1970 and 1971, Kerkorian struggled with debt from his acquisitions of MGM and Western Airlines, and was forced to sell a majority of his casino company, International Leisure, to Hilton Hotels at a steep discount. When the Las Vegas Hilton, the casino he had built, subsequently became the most successful hotel in Las Vegas, Kerkorian was inspired to lead the studio into the gambling industry. It opened the original MGM Grand Hotel and Casino (now Bally's Las Vegas) in 1973. The MGM Grand Reno followed in 1978.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: By 1979, the two hotel-casinos accounted for most of MGM's income, and the company announced a plan to split itself in two. The next year, the film studio was spun off as a new company, while the original company, renamed as MGM Grand Hotels Inc., retained the two hotel-casinos. Kerkorian held a 47 percent stake in both companies.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In 1985, Kerkorian began seeking a buyer for MGM Grand Hotels, to allow him to concentrate on running United Artists and on developing new properties under the MGM Grand name. A deal was reached for Bally Manufacturing to buy the company; the deal closed in April 1986, and the two casinos were renamed under the Bally's brand. The terms of the sale allowed Kerkorian to retain rights to the MGM Grand name, and plans were announced to offer the stockholders of MGM Grand Hotels shares in a new company that would hold the naming rights.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The company now known as MGM Resorts International was formed in 1986 as Grand Name Co. as a subsidiary of Kerkorian's Tracinda Corporation. It was renamed in 1987 as MGM Grand, Inc.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The company's first venture was MGM Grand Air, a luxury airline offering service between New York and Los Angeles, which launched in September 1987. The company also made an offer to take over financially struggling Pan American World Airways, but this offer was rejected by Pan Am's board in November 1987.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In August 1987, MGM Grand bid $152 million for the bankrupt Dunes Hotel in Las Vegas, but was beat out by Japanese billionaire Masao Nangaku. Instead, the company acquired the Desert Inn and Sands casinos in February 1988 from Summa Corporation for $167 million. The Sands was sold to Sheldon Adelson's Interface Group for $110 million in April 1989.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In September 1989, the company announced plans for a $700-million Hollywood-themed complex, including a 4,000-room hotel and a theme park. The Desert Inn site was initially considered as a location for the project, but within weeks the location was finalized as the Marina Hotel and Casino and the Tropicana Country Club, which MGM Grand acquired for $93 million plus $30 million in stock. The company put the Desert Inn up for sale to focus efforts on the new project, but found no outside bidders, and agreed to sell it to Tracinda for $130 million. Construction on the MGM Grand Las Vegas and the MGM Grand Adventures theme park began in October 1991, and the property opened in December 1993 at a final cost of $1 billion. The park permanently closed in 2002 due to a lack of interest.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: During construction of the MGM Grand, the company acquired an option to buy an 18-acre site across the street from the project. Gary Primm of Primadonna Resorts approached MGM president Bob Maxey in 1994 with an idea for the site: a casino recreating the New York skyline. A joint venture was formed between the two companies, and construction began in March 1995. Completed at a cost of $460 million, the New York-New York Hotel and Casino opened in January 1997.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: With New York-New York under development, MGM Grand made moves to expand in several other markets. An exploratory agreement to develop two casinos on the Chinese island of Hainan was announced in August 1994, but came to nothing. In Darwin, Australia, a lucrative market attracting high rollers from Pacific Rim countries, the company considered building a hotel, but instead bought the Diamond Beach Hotel and Casino, renaming it as the MGM Grand Darwin. MGM announced plans for an Atlantic City casino in July 1996. In Michigan, where voters approved casinos in November 1996, MGM made plans for a bid on one of the three available gaming licenses, which would eventually be approved and open in July 1999 as the MGM Grand Detroit.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In South Africa, with casino gambling newly authorized, MGM announced plans in August 1996 to develop 15 properties in conjunction with Tsogo Sun. The first, a temporary casino in Johannesburg's Sundome, opened in October 1998. Three more casinos followed before MGM agreed to sell out its interest in the properties to Tsogo Sun in November 2001.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: Since the initiation of New York-New York, analysts had speculated that MGM Grand or Primadonna would buy out the other's interest in the project. Instead of making such a cash-intensive purchase, however, MGM agreed to buy Primadonna outright for $276 million in stock plus $336 million in assumed debt. The merger closed in March 1999, giving MGM ownership of three casinos and two golf courses at the Nevada–California state line, in addition to full control of New York-New York.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In February 2000, MGM Grand made an unsolicited offer of $17 a share to buy Mirage Resorts, which had foundered due to disappointing results at its new Beau Rivage and Bellagio resorts. Analysts expected a protracted battle, with Mirage founder Steve Wynn seen as unwilling to give up control but under pressure from institutional investors. Mirage rejected the offer, but Wynn met with Kerkorian the next day and named a price of $21 a share. The companies agreed on the higher price, for a total of $4.4 billion plus $2 billion in assumed debt. The merger closed in May 2000, giving MGM ownership of the Mirage, Treasure Island, Bellagio, Boardwalk, and Golden Nugget casinos in Las Vegas, the Golden Nugget in Laughlin, and the Beau Rivage in Mississippi, and a half share of the Monte Carlo. The company changed its name to MGM Mirage in August 2000. Mirage had also owned a half stake in the Borgata, a planned casino in Atlantic City, in a joint venture managed by Boyd Gaming. Work on the Borgata continued apace, and it would open in July 2003.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In 2001 and 2002, following the merger with Mirage, the company explored options for its next major development project, including in the Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Chicago, and Macau markets. The 55-acre site of the Boardwalk casino on the Las Vegas Strip was earmarked for a technologically advanced megaresort targeting a Generation X demographic. In Atlantic City, MGM shifted focus from its previously announced boardwalk site to a proposed billion-dollar hotel and casino on a 55-acre tract adjacent to the Borgata, where Wynn had planned to build the Le Jardin casino. In the Chicago market, MGM agreed to pay $600 million to buy the unfinished Emerald Casino in Rosemont, Illinois, whose investors had been accused of ties to organized crime. The deal was rejected, however, by state gaming regulators, and MGM then backed off its effort, saying that Illinois's casino tax was too high. In Macau, where Stanley Ho's 40-year government-granted monopoly on gambling was coming to an end, MGM submitted a bid for one of three available gaming concessions, but it was not selected, losing out to Ho, Las Vegas Sands, and Wynn Resorts.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: MGM made moves into the United Kingdom market after a 2001 government report called for loosening of the country's gambling regulations. It opened an online casino, playmgmmirage.com, licensed in the Isle of Man, a British dependency, and it applied for a license to run an online sports betting site in the U.K. It acquired a twenty-five percent stake in a company developing the small Triangle Casino in Bristol, which went on to open its doors in February 2004. It inked deals to build casinos at the Olympia Exhibition Centre in London, St James' Park in Newcastle, Meadowhall Shopping Centre in Sheffield, the National Exhibition Centre in Birmingham, Sportcity in Manchester, Glasgow Harbour, King's Waterfront in Liverpool, and at a proposed stadium in Salford. The company also signed a $490-million deal to acquire Wembley plc, owner of seven greyhound tracks in Britain and four in the United States.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The British expansion plans ultimately amounted to nothing. MGM closed its online casino after less than two years, citing uncertainty in American regulations and competition from established British brands. The Wembley acquisition turned into a bidding war, with MGM finally losing out to an investors group including Kerzner International. The Triangle Casino was sold off to Stanley Leisure in 2006. The company's other development plans were scuttled as the government scaled down, and eventually abandoned, the plan to allow large "super-casinos".


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In 2004, the company disposed of some of its smaller properties, selling the two Golden Nugget casinos (Golden Nugget Las Vegas and Golden Nugget Laughlin) to Poster Financial Group for $215 million, and the MGM Grand Darwin to Skycity Entertainment for $140 million.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: MGM entered into quiet merger talks with Mandalay Resort Group in early 2004. The potential acquisition would give MGM control of more than half the hotel rooms on the Las Vegas Strip. Mandalay assets attractive to MGM included low-end casinos like Excalibur and Circus Circus to broaden MGM's "high roller" appeal; the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, which would allow MGM to compete directly with the Sands Expo center in the convention market; and at least two prime developable sites on the Strip. The talks went public in June, when MGM announced an offer worth $7.65 billion. Mandalay rejected that offer because of a clause allowing MGM to back out if antitrust regulators demanded the sale of any properties. Analysts speculated that another bidder such as Harrah's or Boyd might enter, but none did, and MGM and Mandalay soon agreed on a $7.9 billion deal.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: MGM executives were confident that antitrust regulators would not require the sale of any of the two companies' properties. Michigan law, however, forbade one company from owning multiple casinos, requiring the sale of either the MGM Grand Detroit or Mandalay's 54 percent stake in the MotorCity Casino. After some vacillation about which property to sell, Mandalay accepted a $525-million offer for its interest in MotorCity from Marian Ilitch, the casino's second largest shareholder. Meanwhile, in Illinois, where MGM needed regulatory approval to take over Mandalay's 50 percent interest in the Grand Victoria Casino, a lack of quorum on the state Gaming Board threatened to delay the merger. MGM considered a sale to the casino's other owner, the Pritzker family, but ultimately gained approval for a plan to place the property under control of a trustee until completion of the licensing process. The FTC approved the merger as predicted, and MGM obtained a $7 billion line of credit to finance it. The sale closed on April 25, 2005 for a total of $7.9 billion, including $3 billion in assumed debt.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: The Mandalay acquisition made MGM Mirage the largest gaming company in the world, but it was surpassed just two months later when Harrah's Entertainment acquired Caesars Entertainment in a deal that had been spurred on by news of the MGM-Mandalay merger.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: Despite MGM's initial failure to win a gaming concession in Macau, the company had remained interested in the burgeoning gaming market. Rumors of a possible partnership with Stanley Ho were reported in 2003, but Nevada gaming regulators informally vetoed the idea because of the alleged involvement of organized crime triads in his casinos. Another possibility emerged when the government allowed the three gaming concessionaires to each sell a sub-concession. In June 2004, MGM formed a joint venture with Pansy Ho, Stanley's daughter, to develop a casino-hotel under a sub-concession from Stanley. Despite initial concerns about whether Pansy Ho was subject to her father's influence, the Nevada Gaming Commission eventually approved the partnership. Construction of the MGM Grand Macau began in June 2005. The property opened in December 2007, completed at a cost of $1.25 billion.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: In 2004, MGM solidified its plans for the Boardwalk site on the Strip, announcing Project CityCenter, an $8-billion high-density project including hotels, condominiums, a casino, and a shopping mall. The Boardwalk was closed in January 2006 to make way for the redevelopment, and CityCenter construction began the following June.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: Singapore emerged in 2004 as the next major new Asian gaming market, calling for proposals to build two "integrated resort" casinos at Marina Bay and the island of Sentosa. MGM partnered with CapitaLand in an estimated $3 billion bid for the Marina Bay site. Their bid advanced to the final stage against three competitors, and was seen as the favorite to win. The government awarded the license, however, to Las Vegas Sands, citing its strength in the meetings and conventions sector.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: On April 25, 2006, MGM Mirage announced with Foxwoods Resort and Casino a joint partnership in developing an expansion plan at Foxwoods that will include a casino using the MGM Grand brand. On October 16, 2006, MGM Mirage announced that it planned to sell its properties in Laughlin (Colorado Belle Hotel & Casino and Edgewater Hotel and Casino) to a partnership of Anthony Marnell III and Sher Gaming. The sale price was $200 million. The sale closed on June 1, 2007. On October 31, 2006, MGM Mirage announced plans to sell Primm Valley Resorts to Herbst Gaming for $400 million. The proposed sale would not include the Primm Valley Golf Club. The sale closed on April 10, 2007.


title: MGM Resorts International

text: On April 19, 2007 the company announced that it planned to purchase a site from Concord Wilshire Partners for $130 million and a site from Gordon Gaming for $444 million. The two parcels give the company complete control of the southwest corner of the Sahara and Las Vegas Boulevard intersection. When combined with underused parts of the Circus Circus site, the company will have a site for future development. The Concord site had been the proposed location for the Maxim Casino.