text: Russian remains the dominant language of business and upper levels of government. Parliament sessions are only rarely conducted in Kyrgyz and mostly take place in Russian. In 2011, President Roza Otunbaeva controversially reopened the debate about Kyrgyz getting a more dominant position in the country.


title: Geographical distribution of Russian speakers

text: In Tajikistan, Russian is the language of interethnic communication under the Constitution of Tajikistan. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 90,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 1 million active speakers. 28% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 7% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work. The World Factbook notes that Russian is widely used in government and business.


text: After independence, Tajik was declared the sole state language, and until 2009, Russian was designated the "language for interethnic communication". The 2009 law stated that all official papers and education in the country should be conducted only in the Tajik language. However, the law also stated that all minority ethnic groups in the country have the right to choose the language in which they want their children to be educated.


text: Russian lost its status as the official lingua franca of Turkmenistan in 1996. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 150,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 100,000 active speakers. Russian is spoken by 12% of the population, according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.


text: Russian television channels have mostly been shut down in Turkmenistan, and many Russian-language schools were closed down.


text: In Uzbekistan, Russian has no official status but is a lingua franca. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 1,200,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 5 million active speakers. Russian is spoken by 14.2% of the population, according to an undated estimate from the World Factbook.


text: After the independence of Uzbekistan in 1991, Uzbek culture underwent the three trends of derussification, the creation of an Uzbek national identity, and westernization. The state has primarily promoted those trends through the educational system, which is particularly effective because nearly half the Uzbek population is of school age or younger.


text: Since the Uzbek language became official and privileged in hiring and firing, there has been a brain drain of ethnic Russians in Uzbekistan. The displacement of the Russian-speaking population from the industrial sphere, science and education has weakened those spheres. As a result of emigration, participation in Russian cultural centers like the State Academy Bolshoi Theatre in Uzbekistan has seriously declined.


text: In the capital, Tashkent, statues of the leaders of the Russian Revolution were taken down and replaced with local heroes like Timur, and urban street names in the Russian style were Uzbekified. In 1995, Uzbekistan ordered the Uzbek alphabet changed from a Russian-based Cyrillic script to a modified Latin alphabet, and in 1997, Uzbek became the sole language of state administration.


text: In 2005, Russian was the most widely taught foreign language in Mongolia, and is compulsory in Year 7 onward as a second foreign language in 2006.


text: Australian cities Melbourne and Sydney have Russian-speaking populations, most of which live in the southeast of Melbourne, particularly the suburbs of Carnegie and Caulfield. Two-thirds of them are actually Russian-speaking descendants of Germans, Greeks, Jews, Azerbaijanis, Armenians or Ukrainians, who either were repatriated after the Soviet Union collapsed or are just looking for temporary employment.


text: In Belarus, Russian is co-official alongside Belarusian per the Constitution of Belarus. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 3,243,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 8 million active speakers; 77% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 67% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work.


text: Initially, when Belarus became independent in 1991 and the Belarusian language became the only state language, some derussification started. However, after Alexander Lukashenko became president, a referendum held in 1995, which was considered fraudulent by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, included a question about the status of Russian. It was made a state language, along with Belarusian.


text: In most spheres, the Russian language is by far the dominant one. In fact, almost all government information and websites are in Russian only.


text: Bulgaria has the largest proportion of Russian-speakers among European countries that were not part of the Soviet Union. According to a 2012 Eurobarometer survey, 19% of the population understands Russian well enough to follow the news, television, or radio.


text: In Estonia, Russian is officially considered a foreign language. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 470,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 500,000 active speakers, 35% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 25% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work. Russian is spoken by 29.6% of the population, according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook.


text: Ethnic Russians are 25.5% of the country's current population and 58.6% of the native Estonian population is also able to speak Russian. In all, 67.8% of Estonia's population could speak Russian. The command of Russian, however, is rapidly decreasing among younger Estonians and is primarily being replaced by the command of English. For example, 53% of ethnic Estonians between 15 and 19 claimed to speak some Russian in 2000, but among the 10- to 14-year-old group, command of Russian had fallen to 19%, about one third the percentage of those who claim to command English in the same age group.


text: In 2007, Amnesty International harshly criticized what it termed Estonia's "harassment" of Russian-speakers. In 2010, the language inspectorate stepped up inspections at workplaces to ensure that state employees spoke Estonian at an acceptable level. That included inspections of teachers at Russian-medium schools. Amnesty International continues to criticize Estonian policies: "Non-Estonian speakers, mainly from the Russian-speaking minority, were denied employment due to official language requirements for various professions in the private sector and almost all professions in the public sector. Most did not have access to affordable language training that would enable them to qualify for employment."


text: The percentage of Russian speakers in Estonia is still declining, but not as fast as in the most of ex-Soviet countries. After overcoming the consequences of 2007 economic crisis, the tendency of emigration of Russian speakers has almost stopped, unlike in Latvia or in Lithuania.


text: Russian is spoken by 1.4% of the population of Finland, according to a 2014 estimate from the World Factbook. Russian is the third most-spoken native language in Finland and one of the fastest growing ones in terms of native speakers as well as learners as a foreign language.


text: Russian is becoming more prominent because of an increase in trade with and tourism to and from the Russia and other Russian-speaking countries and regions. There is a steadily-increasing demand for the knowledge of Russian in the workplace, which is also reflected in its growing presence in the Finnish education system, including higher education. In Eastern Finland, Russian has already begun to rival Swedish as the second most important foreign language.


text: In Georgia, Russian has no official status but is recognized as a minority language under the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 130,000 native speakers of Russian in the country, and 1.7 million active speakers. 27% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 1% used it as the main language with family, friends or at work. Russian is the language of 9% of the population according to the World Factbook. Ethnologue cites Russian as the country's de facto working language.


text: Georgianization has been pursued with most official and private signs only in the Georgian language, with English being the favored foreign language. Exceptions are older signs remaining from Soviet times, which are generally bilingual Georgian and Russian. Private signs and advertising in the Samtskhe-Javakheti region, which has a majority Armenian population, are generally in Russian only or Georgian and Russian. In the Kvemo Kartlii borderline region, which has a majority ethnic Azerbaijani population, signs and advertising are often in Russian only, in Georgian and Azerbaijani, or Georgian and Russian. Derussification has not been pursued in the areas outside Georgian government control: Abkhazia and South Ossetia.


text: Germany has the highest Russian-speaking population outside the former Soviet Union, with approximately 3 million people. They are split into three groups, from largest to smallest: Russian-speaking ethnic Germans ("Aussiedler"), ethnic Russians, and Jews.


text: Despite large Russian-speaking minorities in Latvia (26.9% ethnic Russians, 2011) Russian is officially considered a foreign language; 55% of the population being fluent in Russian in 2006, and 26% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work.


text: In March 2010, factsheets in Russian produced by the EU executive's offices in Latvia were withdrawn, provoking criticism from Plaid Cymru MEP and European Free Alliance group President Jill Evans, who called European Commission to continue to provide information in non-official EU languages and commented that "it's disappointing to hear that the EU is bowing to pressure to exclude Russian speakers in the Baltic in this way".


text: A constitutional referendum, held in February 2012, proposed amendments to the constitution of Latvia to make Russian the second state language of Latvia, but 821,722 (75%) of the voters voted against and 273,347 (25%) for. There has been criticism that about 290,000 of the 557,119 (2011) ethnic Russians in Latvia are non-citizens and do not have the right to vote.


text: Beginning in 2019, instruction in Russian will be gradually discontinued in private colleges and universities, as well general instruction in public high schools except for subjects related to culture and history of the Russian minority, such as Russian language and literature classes.


text: In Lithuania, Russian has no official or any other legal status, but the use of the language has some presence in certain areas. A large part of the population (63% as of 2011), especially the older generations, can speak Russian as a foreign language. Only 3% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work, though. English has replaced Russian as "lingua franca" in Lithuania and around 80% of young people speak English as the first foreign language. In contrast to the other two Baltic states, Lithuania has a relatively small Russian-speaking minority (5.0% as of 2008).


text: Unlike Latvia or Estonia, Lithuania has never implemented the practice of regarding some former Soviet citizens as non-citizens.


text: In Moldova, Russian has a status similar to the other recognized minority languages; it was also considered to be the language of interethnic communication under a Soviet-era law.


text: According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 450,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 1.9 million active speakers. 50% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 19% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work. According to the 2014 census, Russian is the native language of 9.68% of Moldovans, and the language of first use for 14.49% of the population.


text: According to the 2011 Romanian census, there are 23,487 Russian-speaking Lipovans practicizing the Lipovan Orthodox Old-Rite Church. They are concentrated in Dobruja, mainly in the Tulcea County but also in the Constanța County. Outside Dobruja, the Lipovans of Romania live mostly in the Suceava County and in the cities of


text: According to the census of 2010 in Russia, Russian skills were indicated by 138 million people (99.4% population), and according to the 2002 census, the number was 142.6 million people (99.2% population). Among urban residents, 101 million people (99.8%) had Russian language skills, and in rural areas, the number was 37 million people (98.7%). The number of native Russian-speakers in 2010 was 118.6 million (85.7%), a bit higher than the number of ethnic Russians (111 million, or 80.9%).


text: Russian is the official language of Russia but shares the official status at regional level with other languages in the numerous ethnic autonomies within Russia, such as Chuvashia, Bashkortostan, Tatarstan, and Yakutia, and 94% of school students in Russia receive their education primarily in Russian.


text: In Dagestan, Chechnya, and Ingushetia, derussification is understood not so much directly as the disappearance of Russian language and culture but rather by the exodus of Russian-speaking people themselves, which intensified after the First and the Second Chechen Wars and Islamization; by 2010, it had reached a critical point. The displacement of the Russian-speaking population from industry, science and education has weakened those spheres.


text: In the Republic of Karelia, it was announced in 2007 that the Karelian language would be used at national events, but Russian is still the only official language (Karelian is one of several "national" languages), and virtually all business and education is conducted in Russian. In 2010, less than 8% of the republic's population was ethnic Karelian.


text: In Ukraine, Russian is seen as a minority language under the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine. According to estimates from Demoskop Weekly, in 2004 there were 14,400,000 native speakers of Russian in the country and 29 million active speakers; 65% of the population was fluent in Russian in 2006, and 38% used it as the main language with family or friends or at work.


text: In 1990, Russian became legally the official all-Union language of the Soviet Union, with constituent republics having rights to declare their own official languages. In 1989, the Ukrainian SSR government adopted Ukrainian as its official language, which was affirmed after the fall of the Soviet Union as the only official state language of the newly-independent Ukraine. The educational system was transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that was overwhelmingly Russian to one in which over 75% of tuition was in Ukrainian. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce.


text: In 2012 poll by RATING, 50% of respondents consider Ukrainian their native language, 29% - Russian, 20% consider both Ukrainian and Russian their mother tongue, another 1% considers a different language their native language.). However, the transition lacked most of the controversies that surrounded the derussification in several of the other former Soviet Republics.


text: In some cases, the abrupt changing of the language of instruction in institutions of secondary and higher education led to charges of assimilation, which were raised mostly by Russian-speakers. In various elections, the adoption of Russian as an official language was an election promise by one of the main candidates (Leonid Kuchma in 1994, Viktor Yanukovych in 2004, and the Party of Regions in 2012). After the introduction of the 2012 legislation on languages in Ukraine, Russian was declared a "regional language" in several southern and eastern parts of Ukraine. On 28 February 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled that legislation to be unconstitutional.


text: In the 20th century, Russian was a mandatory language taught in the schools of the members of the old Warsaw Pact and in other communist countries that used to be Soviet satellites, including Poland, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Albania, the former East Germany and Cuba. However, younger generations are usually not fluent in it because Russian is no longer mandatory in schools. According to the Eurobarometer 2005 survey, fluency in Russian remains fairly high, however, at (20–40%) in some countries, particularly those whose people speak a Slavic language and so have an edge in learning Russian (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Bulgaria).


text: Significant Russian-speaking groups also exist in other parts of Europe and have been fed by several waves of immigrants since the beginning of the 20th century, each with its own flavor of language. The United Kingdom, Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, Norway, and Austria have significant Russian-speaking communities.


text: According to the 2011 census of Ireland, there were 21,639 people using Russian at home. However, only 13% were Russian nationals. 20% held Irish citizenship, while 27% and 14% were Latvian and Lithuanian citizens respectfully.


text: There were 20,984 Russian-speakers in Cyprus according to the 2011 census of 2011 and accounted for 2.5% of the population.


text: Russian is spoken by 1.6% of the people of Hungary according to a 2011 estimate from the World Factbook.


text: The language was first introduced in North America when Russian explorers voyaged into Alaska and claimed it for Russia in the 1700s. Although most Russian colonists left after the United States bought the land in 1867, a handful stayed and have preserved the Russian language in the region although only a few elderly speakers of their unique dialect are left. In Nikolaevsk, Russian is more spoken than English. Sizable Russian-speaking communities also exist in North America, especially in large urban centers of the US and Canada, such as New York City, Philadelphia, Boston, Los Angeles, Nashville, San Francisco, Seattle, Spokane, Toronto, Calgary, Baltimore, Miami, Chicago, Denver and Cleveland. In a number of locations, they issue their own newspapers, and live in ethnic enclaves (especially the generation of immigrants who started arriving in the early 1960s). Only about 25% of them are ethnic Russians, however. Before the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the overwhelming majority of Russophones in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn in New York City were Russian-speaking Jews. Afterward, the influx from the countries of the former Soviet Union changed the statistics somewhat, with ethnic Russians and Ukrainians immigrating along with some more Russian Jews and Central Asians. According to the United States Census, in 2007 Russian was the primary language spoken in the homes of over 850,000 individuals living in the United States.


text: Russian was the most popular language in Cuba in the second half of the 20th century. Besides being taught at universities and schools, there were also educational programs on the radio and TV. It is now making a come-back in the country.


text: There is a small community of Russian Brazilians who have kept the use of the Russian language, mostly in the hinterland of the southern state of Paraná.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Niall John Quinn (honorary MBE; born 6 October 1966) is an Irish former professional footballer, manager, businessman and sports television pundit.


title: Niall Quinn

text: As a player he was a striker who played top flight football for Arsenal, Manchester City and Sunderland, with spells in the Premier League for both City and the Black Cats. Quinn also received 92 caps for the Republic of Ireland national football team, scoring 21 times, which makes him Ireland's second highest goalscorer of all time. He also appeared with the Irish team at the UEFA European Football Championship of 1988 and two FIFA World Cups in 1990 and 2002.


title: Niall Quinn

text: He later was part of a consortium to buy Sunderland and became the club's chairman. He also had a spell as manager before stepping down to a role of club director. He left the club in February 2012 and has since worked as a pundit namely on Sky Sports.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Niall Quinn played Gaelic football for the Perrystown, Dublin 12, club Robert Emmets. He also played underage football and hurling for Dublin. In July 1983, Quinn captained a Dublin Colleges GAA party on a one-month tour of Australia.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Aged 16, he played in the 1983 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Championship Final, and was offered a contract to play professional Australian rules football before settling on a career in football. He played Gaelic football for Co. Kildare club Eadestown after his retirement, winning a junior C county title in 2008.


title: Niall Quinn

text: He played as a youth for Irish club Manortown United and then Lourdes Celtic in Crumlin, Dublin 12. After an unsuccessful trial at Fulham he signed professional forms with English club Arsenal in 1983. He was signed as a centre-forward, but also had a brief spell as a centre-half for the Arsenal third team. After scoring 18 goals in 18 reserve matches in the first half of the 1985–86 season, Quinn was included in the first-team squad for a match against Liverpool. Quinn scored in the match as Arsenal recorded a 2–0 win. He made a further 11 league appearances for Arsenal that season, but failed to score as they finished seventh in the league. The end of the season brought Quinn his first call-up to the Republic of Ireland national team.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn found himself playing under a new manager for the following season, as George Graham was appointed in place of Don Howe. Quinn had a regular place in the side that season, appearing in 35 league games and scoring eight goals. He also collected a Football League Cup winner's medal as Arsenal triumphed 2–1 over Liverpool. However, after Arsenal signed another target man, Alan Smith, in the 1987 close season, Quinn struggled to get into the team. Over the next three seasons he managed a total of just 20 league appearances and five goals – his three appearances in 1988–89 not being enough for a title medal. Quinn's lack of opportunities led him to submit a written transfer request at the start of the 1989–90 season. In total he scored 20 goals in 94 appearances for Arsenal, of which 81 were starts.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Manchester City manager Howard Kendall signed Quinn for £800,000 in March 1990, shortly before the transfer deadline. He marked his debut with a goal, in a 1–1 draw against Chelsea at Maine Road. He scored 22 times in his first full season, and he went on to spend six years at the club, scoring 78 goals in 245 appearances; his time at City was hampered by a cruciate ligament injury in 1993–94. Although he returned to the side the following season, he managed just eight goals from 35 games.


title: Niall Quinn

text: His most notable game for City was 20 April 1991 when he scored early on and saved a penalty as City beat Derby County 2–1, relegating Derby in the process. City goalkeeper Tony Coton had been sent off before half time for fouling Dean Saunders to concede the penalty. At this time teams rarely named goalkeepers as substitutes, so Quinn replaced Coton in goal. Other notable games included the Manchester derby on 7 November 1993, in which he scored twice in the first half to put City 2–0 up against United by half time, although a remarkable United comeback saw City lose 3–2.


title: Niall Quinn

text: In the 1993 close season, Everton made a bid to sign Quinn and a further bid was made early in the 1993–94 season, but both bids were rejected and Quinn remained at Maine Road for a further three seasons. A cruciate ligament injury sustained in a match against Sheffield Wednesday in November 1993 caused Quinn to miss the majority of the 1993–94 season, and prevented him from playing in the 1994 FIFA World Cup. He returned at the start of the 1994–95 season, but the partnership forged by Uwe Rösler and Paul Walsh in his absence meant he was not always a starter. In attempt to reduce the wage bill, Manchester City tried to sell Quinn in the 1995 close-season, but a proposed move to Lisbon club Sporting fell through after failure to agree contractual terms.


title: Niall Quinn

text: He managed a total of 193 league appearances in over six years at Maine Road, and scored a total of 64 goals for them.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn finished his career with a highly successful spell at Sunderland, joining the north-east club in August 1996 for a club record £1.3 million, although he missed six months of his first season due to a knee injury – similar to the one which ruined his World Cup chances three years earlier. Before his injury, he had got off to a fine start to his Sunderland career, finding the net twice on his debut in a 4–1 win at Nottingham Forest. In his absence from September to March, Sunderland struggled and although he was back in action by the end of the season, they were relegated.


title: Niall Quinn

text: His partnership with striker Kevin Phillips, signed in the 1997 close season, was one of the most prolific in the Football League in the late 1990s/early 2000s (a combined 194 goals for both players in all competitions from 1997-98 to 2002-03) and helped the club to regain promotion to the Premiership for the 1999–2000 season. In March 1999 Quinn again had to play in goal, this time replacing the injured Thomas Sørensen in a game against Bradford City. In similar circumstances to when playing for Manchester City against Derby County in 1991 Quinn scored and then went in goal, and kept a clean sheet to help his side win. He also has the distinction of being the first player to score at Sunderland's Stadium of Light, against Manchester City in 1997. He became a local legend at Sunderland, winning both the Sunderland and North East Sportswriters' Player of the Year awards in 1999 after scoring 21 goals in Sunderland's record-breaking Division One title-winning season. His final appearance for Sunderland came on 19 October 2002 against West Ham.


title: Niall Quinn

text: In a league career lasting 17 years, he had played a total of 475 times in the Premier League and Football League, scoring 141 goals.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn played in the qualifiers for the 1986 UEFA European Under-18 Football Championship, and made his Irish international debut at under-17 level against Northern Ireland at Seaview in a 6–1 friendly win in January 1985, the first ever fixture between the two nations. Quinn scored a hat trick as did Eamonn Dolan. However Arsenal refused permission for Quinn to travel to the 1985 FIFA World Youth Championships.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn made his senior debut as a substitute against the host nation in the Iceland Triangular Tournament in 1986. Quinn played for his country at two World Cups, in 1990 and 2002; he missed the 1994 FIFA World Cup because of injury.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn was also a member of the Irish squad that participated in the 1988 European Championship playing just once, as a substitute in the Republic of Ireland's 1–0 win over England in Stuttgart.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn scored the equaliser against the Netherlands in the 1990 FIFA World Cup which allowed the Republic to progress to the second round of that tournament. In the qualifiers for the 2002 FIFA World Cup, he scored against Cyprus on his 35th birthday to break the all-time goalscoring record, then held by Frank Stapleton. In the tournament proper, his header set up Robbie Keane's late equaliser against Germany, which was the only goal Germany conceded before the final. In the second-round, with the Republic behind 1–0 to Spain, it was a foul on Quinn that led to Ireland's last-minute penalty, converted by Robbie Keane, which tied the game and brought extra-time, but the Republic lost 3–2 in the resulting penalty shootout.


title: Niall Quinn

text: After the tournament, he announced his retirement from international football, amassing 92 caps. At the time, he was his country's all-time top scorer with 21 goals; this record was later surpassed by Robbie Keane in October 2004.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn had a testimonial match between Sunderland and the Republic of Ireland in 2002. He donated the entire proceeds to charity, an act for which he received a number of awards, including an honorary MBE. Instead of receiving an appearance fee for the game, all the players received a letter from a sick child. Quinn played for both teams during the match, which raised over £1 million. The Republic of Ireland won the match 3–0.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn retired in 2003 at the age of 37, taking a brief coaching role at Sunderland. Quinn has also made appearances as a television pundit and commentator for televised matches involving his former teams with Sky Sports. He made a single league appearance for Thai Premier League side BEC Tero Sasana in March 2006 to promote the league and the side's link with Arsenal.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn released an acclaimed autobiography "Niall Quinn – The Autobiography" (2002), which was ghostwritten by Tom Humphries. It won the Best Autobiography category in the inaugural British Sports Book Awards. It was also nominated for a William Hill Sports Book of the Year award. The book is not structured chronologically, but rather in the context of Quinn's career swansong, the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Heading the Drumaville Consortium of wealthy Irish businessmen, in June 2006, Quinn successfully brokered a deal to buy a controlling stake in Sunderland. In July 2006 Quinn became the chairman and manager of Sunderland. The deal was finalised on 27 July 2006, with sufficient shares being sold to the consortium in order for them to take complete control.


title: Niall Quinn

text: His managerial career did not get off to a good start as the team lost its first four league games in a row. On 22 August, Sunderland played Bury away in the League Cup where they lost 2–0. After the match Quinn said that a new manager would be appointed by Sunderland's next game. Quinn stepped to one side (to continue in his role as Sunderland chairman) paving the way for Roy Keane to take charge. This was highly unexpected considering the huge rift between the two arising from Keane's infamous ejection from the 2002 World Cup. Keane was appointed manager of the club on 28 August 2006. The appointment matured into a great success, with Sunderland clinching an immediate Premier League comeback as Football League Championship champions. Quinn made substantial amounts of money available for buying new players, as he had a declared ambition to establish Sunderland as a top club.


title: Niall Quinn

text: In 2008, he received the James Joyce Award of the Literary & Historical Society in University College Dublin.


title: Niall Quinn

text: In October 2011 Ellis Short replaced Quinn as chairman of Sunderland. Quinn was appointed as Director of International Development on behalf of the club and remained in this role until stepping down in February 2012 and after six years involved with the running of the club saying "Everything is in place for Sunderland to really make a statement, which was always my aim".


title: Niall Quinn

text: Since leaving Sunderland, Quinn is now chairman of a satellite broadband company in Ireland called Q Sat.


title: Niall Quinn

text: He won, also in 2012, the North East Football Writers' Association's Personality of the Year for 2011. In November 2013, Quinn was bestowed with the Freedom of Sunderland award by the city of Sunderland.


title: Niall Quinn

text: In January 2020, Quinn was appointed as interim deputy chief executive officer of the Football Association of Ireland, choosing to go without salary until the financial future of the organisation could be secured. In September 2020 he stepped down from his interim CEO role.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn has his own song titled "Niall Quinn's Disco Pants". The song was originally created by Manchester City supporters during a night out on a pre-season tour in Penola, Italy, in 1992. There had been a bust-up with City team-mate Steve McMahon and Quinn had removed his torn and bloodied shirt and was dancing with Rick Holden wearing just a pair of cut-off jeans. He was "hardly aware" that there were a group of hardcore City fans watching and they treated him to "the first performance of the song that will follow me till the end of my career."


title: Niall Quinn

text: The song was adopted by Sunderland fans and released as a single by the club's dedicated fanzine "A Love Supreme". It reached no. 56 in the UK Singles Chart in April 1999.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Quinn has received praise for his relationship with Sunderland fans. This was highlighted in March 2007 when, during his tenure as chairman, Quinn paid over £8000 to allow around 100 Sunderland fans to travel home by taxi when stranded at Bristol airport after being ejected from their scheduled flight home. The incident happened on Saturday night when Quinn, Sunderland staff and a group of supporters boarded an easyJet flight from Bristol to Newcastle, following Sunderland's 1–0 win at Championship promotion rivals Cardiff. After spotting Quinn, many of the fans broke into song, serenading Quinn with 'Niall Quinn's Disco Pants'. EasyJet staff, angered by the boisterous behaviour, ejected the fans from the plane and Quinn, outraged at the fans' treatment, also left the plane. Quinn, seeing there were no other flights available, decided to commandeer a fleet of taxis and minivans in order to return the fans home.


title: Niall Quinn

text: Both Quinn's parents are from Thurles, County Tipperary. His father as well as his uncles on his mother's side played hurling for Tipperary. He was born in Dublin. He now lives in Kildare. He has been married to the Irish model Gillian Roe since 1992, and they have two children: Aisling and Michael.


title: John Bindon

text: John Dennis Arthur Bindon (4 October 1943 – 10 October 1993) was an English actor and bodyguard who had close links with the London underworld. The son of a London cab driver, Bindon was frequently in trouble as a youth for getting into fights, and spent two periods in borstal. He was spotted in a London pub by Ken Loach, who asked him to star in his film "Poor Cow" (1967).


title: John Bindon

text: Other film and television productions followed, with Bindon sought after to play gangsters or tough police detectives. He played a violent mobster alongside Mick Jagger in "Performance" (1970) and a London crime boss in "Get Carter" (1971). Philip Hoare described Bindon as "the archetypal actor-villain, and an all-round 'good geezer'".


title: John Bindon

text: He was also known for having many socialite girlfriends, such as Christine Keeler, the former "Playboy" "Bunny Girl" Serena Williams, and Vicki Hodge, who had a 12-year abusive relationship with Bindon, which ended in 1981. Through Hodge, the daughter of a baronet, Bindon gained access to British aristocratic circles, which culminated with his meeting Princess Margaret in the late 1960s, at her home on Mustique in the Caribbean.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon lived his hard man persona on and off screen. He was believed to be running protection rackets in west London pubs and was alleged to have connections to the Kray twins and the Richardson Gang. In the late 1970s, in addition to acting work, he provided security for actors and musicians, most notoriously for Led Zeppelin on their 1977 US tour, where he was sacked for brawling backstage.


title: John Bindon

text: In 1978, Bindon was tried for the murder of London gangster Johnny Darke. Bindon pleaded self-defence and was acquitted, but the case damaged his reputation, and that, coupled with being seen by directors as difficult to work with, meant his acting career declined. In the 1980s, Bindon became reclusive; he died in 1993.


title: John Bindon

text: John Bindon was born in Fulham, London, and was the son of Dennis Bindon, a merchant seaman and engineer turned cab driver. The second eldest in a working-class family of three children, Bindon attended Henry Compton School in Fulham, but left at the age of 15. He was given the nickname "Biffo" for starting or getting into fights.


title: John Bindon

text: As a teenager, he served time in a borstal for possessing live ammunition. After jobs ranging from laying asphalt to dealing in antiques (his best friend for several years was the antiques dealer John Hobbs), Bindon pursued a career in acting.


title: John Bindon

text: Director Ken Loach, spotting him in a London pub in 1966, considered him perfect for the role of a rough husband in the film, "Poor Cow" (1967). His next big break came the following year with a role in "Performance" (not released until 1970) alongside Mick Jagger, where he played a violent mobster. His portrayal earned him critical praise and typecast him for future roles. Bindon was awarded the Queen's Award for Bravery, a police bravery medal, for diving off Putney Bridge into the River Thames to rescue a drowning man, in 1968, although some said he had pushed the man in and only rescued him when a policeman appeared.


title: John Bindon

text: In 1968, he met Vicki Hodge, a baronet's daughter turned model and actress, who introduced him to British aristocracy. However, he had been previously invited to the Caribbean island resort of Mustique, where Bindon claimed to have had sex with Princess Margaret. A biographer of the Princess, Noel Botham, firmly believed Bindon had an affair with her. Returning to Mustique for a second time in 1969, he took girlfriend Hodge with him. The princess later publicly denied meeting Bindon (despite pictures of them next to one another) and was reportedly unimpressed to hear stories of their sexual encounters in the press. During this time Bindon gained the nickname "Big John", due to the reported size of his penis. Apparently demonstrated on multiple occasions over decades, when inebriated, Bindon was able to hang five half-pint beer glasses from his manhood.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon's name was also linked with a succession of models, including Christine Keeler, the former "Playboy" "Bunny Girl" Serena Williams, and also Angela Barnett, then girlfriend and future wife of pop star David Bowie.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon had a violent temper and a naturally intimidating personality. He was accused of running a protection racket in west London, targeting pubs, restaurants and cafés. There were also suggestions of connections to the Richardson Gang and the Kray twins, who supported his control of west London, as well as rivalries with gangs from south London. The south London rivalries were suggested to have contributed to his bankruptcy, when he accrued drug debts. The extent of his involvement in the English underworld has not been reliably established.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon's best known film roles were his appearance in "Get Carter" (1971) and the Who's film "Quadrophenia" (1979) as a drug dealer. He also appeared in television series such as "Public Eye", "The Gold Robbers", "Department S", "Dixon of Dock Green", "Z-Cars", "Paul Temple", "Special Branch", "" and "Hazell" playing out his usual tough-guy roles. Despite a productive film and television career, Bindon felt he needed a break from acting, and went into organising security. It was to be a move which would have disastrous personal and financial consequences.


title: John Bindon

text: In early 1977, Bindon was hired by Peter Grant on advice from tour manager Richard Cole as security coordinator for the rock group Led Zeppelin during their concert tour of the United States. He had previously provided security for actors Ryan and Tatum O'Neal (he had appeared in Barry Lyndon in a scene with Ryan). An incident involving Bindon occurred at the band's concert at the Oakland Coliseum on 23 July 1977, near the end of their US tour. Upon arrival at the stadium, it is alleged that Bindon pushed a member of promoter Bill Graham's stage crew out of the way as the band entered via a backstage ramp. As a result, tension had been simmering between Graham's staff and Led Zeppelin's security team during the day, and as Grant and Bindon were walking down the ramp near the end of the concert, words were exchanged with stage crew chief Jim Downey, which resulted in Bindon knocking Downey out cold. Bindon maintained that he was goaded into the fight after Graham's crew referred to him as "a weak limey fuck".


title: John Bindon

text: Just minutes later a separate off-stage incident occurred. Bill Graham's security man Jim Matzorkis was accused of slapping Peter Grant's 11-year-old son Warren for taking a dressing room sign, and was savagely beaten up. Led Zeppelin's second Oakland show took place only after Bill Graham signed a letter of indemnification, absolving Led Zeppelin from responsibility for the previous night's incident. However, Graham refused to honour the letter and assault charges were laid against Grant, Cole, Bindon and John Bonham when the band arrived back at their hotel. The four received bail and later pleaded no contest, receiving suspended sentences. Bindon was dismissed by the band and returned to England. Grant later said that allowing Bindon to be hired was the biggest mistake he ever made as manager.


title: John Bindon

text: In 1978, Bindon became involved in a fight with John Darke, a London gangster, outside the Ranelagh Yacht Club, in Fulham, London. Darke was stabbed nine times, resulting in his death, and Bindon managed to flee to Dublin with his own knife wounds covered up. He gave himself up to police and was subsequently tried at the Old Bailey in October 1979. The prosecution claimed that this was a £10,000 contract killing over drugs, with the fight as a cover for the death. However, the defence argued that Darke's death was in self-defence, saying Bindon was in fear of his life as he was being blackmailed about losing drug money and cocaine worth thousands of pounds.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon was acquitted of Darke's murder in November 1979. It was reported that the "substantial appearance" of actor Bob Hoskins as a character witness at the trial helped sway the jury's verdict and that the judge, Sir William Mars-Jones, "had been sympathetic towards Bindon in his summing-up and unhappy with the ragbag of witnesses produced by the prosecution".


title: John Bindon

text: Media reports of the trial, along with the Oakland incident, seriously damaged Bindon's reputation and he found it increasingly difficult to find work in the entertainment industry.


title: John Bindon

text: During the 1980s, Bindon became a reclusive figure, spending more of his time at his Belgravia flat. He died on 10 October 1993, aged 50. According to Philip Hoare's obituary in "The Independent", he died from cancer.


title: John Bindon

text: In 2002, a Carlton Television documentary of Bindon's life entitled "Real Crime: Starring John Bindon" was screened in the UK on ITV. It featured archival footage of Bindon behind the scenes and interviews with Angie Bowie, Vicki Hodge, Billy Murray, George Sewell and James Whitaker. Bindon also featured in the Carlton documentary for ITV, "The Secret Life of Princess Margaret", broadcast in 2005. Bindon's relationship with Princess Margaret was the subject of Channel 4's documentary "The Princess and the Gangster", which was broadcast on 9 February 2009.


title: John Bindon

text: In 2010, Bindon was the subject of "Ten Men: The Lives of John Bindon", a one-man verse play written and directed by Franklyn McCabe, with Matthew Houghton playing Bindon. The play was performed at the Open House pub theatre as part of the Brighton Fringe Festival in 2010.


title: John Bindon

text: Bindon appeared as a character played by the actor Jason Merrells in the stage play "A Princess Undone" which opened at the Cambridge Arts Theatre in October 2016.


title: Ipsos

text: Ipsos Group S.A. () (an acronym of ) is a multinational market research and consulting firm with headquarters in Paris, France. The company was founded in 1975 by Didier Truchot, Chairman of the company, and has been publicly traded on the Paris Stock Exchange since July 1, 1999.


title: Ipsos

text: Since 1990, the Group has created or acquired numerous companies. In October 2011, Ipsos acquired Synovate, resulting in a Ipsos organization that ranks as the world’s third largest research agency. As of 2014, Ipsos has offices in 88 countries, employing 16,530 people.


title: Ipsos

text: Truchot centered in offering services to the advertising and media companies and developed methods to measure the success of their campaigns, something new in France. The first of these methods was the Baromètre d'Affichage (BAF) in 1977, an instrument to analyse the effectiveness of billboard advertisements. It was followed by an instrument specific for media and, in 1979, the France des Cadres Actifs (FCA), which was used to determine reading habits of French executives.


title: Ipsos

text: Despite the success, the company's profitability remained at modest levels until the arrival of Jean-Marc Lech as co-chairman. From then on, it started to perform public opinion researches, another innovative activity in the French market. By the end of the '80s, it was the fifth largest media research company in France. The great activity of French policymakers at the time helped to strengthen the position of the company, especially the public opinion research sector.


title: Ipsos

text: During the 1990s, Ipsos expanded, principally through acquisitions, to Spain, Italy, Germany, the United Kingdom and Central Europe, especially Hungary.


title: Ipsos

text: In 1992, the company was opened to private investment to improve its purchasing capital. The first new shareholder was Baring Private Equity. Truchot and Lech, the major shareholders, retained two-thirds of the company.


title: Ipsos

text: In the mid-'90s Ipsos was one of the most important research companies in Europe and decided to expand globally. Ipsos took on new investment partners, selling 40 percent of the company to Artemis Group, led by François Pinault, and the Amstar investment fund led by Walter Butler.


title: Ipsos

text: In 1997, Ipsos entered into the South American market with the acquisition of Novaction’s companies in Argentina, Brazil and Mexico. In 1998 it entered the North American market with the purchase of the American company ASI Market Research.


title: Ipsos

text: In 1999, Ipsos was listed on the Paris stock exchange. The successful offering enabled Artemis and Amstar to cash out on their investments and also gave Ipsos the possibility to continue its expansion. Then, it participated of the creation of an Internet audience research joint-venture, MMXI Europe, with the majority of shares held by partner Media Matrix and 20 percent by Ipsos. The company also took control of four subsidiaries of NFO Worldwide specializing in the formation of access panels. The expansion continued in Asia, South America and especially in North America (with the purchase of the Canadian company Angus Reid, renamed Ipsos-Reid in 2000).


title: Ipsos

text: On October 30, 2018, Ipsos announced that it acquired Synthesio, a Social Intelligence Suite that was named the leading global Social Listening platform by Forrester Research since 2014.


title: Ipsos

text: Ben Page became Chief Executive in November 2021, replacing Didier Truchot, the founder, who remained as Chairman.


title: Ipsos

text: Ipsos Australia has existed since at least 2000, and has offices in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. It runs opinion polls on a number of issues, such as community support for changing the date of Australia Day, moving away from coal, Australia becoming a republic, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on young people's mental health, and, until 2019, political preferences.


title: Ipsos

text: The results of Ipsos polls in Australia are published in "The Sydney Morning Herald" ("SMH"), "The Age" and the "Australian Financial Review" ("AFR").


title: Ipsos

text: However, following a shock result of the 2019 Australian federal election, when the Coalition won the election against all of the opinion polls' predictions, the Nine Entertainment group, which owns the "SMH", "Age" and "AFR", decided to discontinue its relationship with Ipsos. Since then and the newspapers have not reported any political polling, but continue to report the results of other Ipsos polls.


title: Ipsos

text: Ipsos revenues totaled €1,785.3 million in 2015, with an organic growth rate of −1%. In 2014, Ipsos derived 44% of its revenue from the EMEA region (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), 39% from the Americas region, and 17% from the Asia-Pacific region.


title: Mac OS X 10.0

text: Mac OS X 10.0 (code named Cheetah) is the first major release of macOS, Apple's desktop and server operating system. Mac OS X 10.0 was released on March 24, 2001, for a price of $129. It was the successor of the Mac OS X Public Beta and the predecessor of Mac OS X 10.1 (code named Puma).


title: Mac OS X 10.0

text: Mac OS X was a radical departure from the classic Mac OS and was Apple's long-awaited answer for a next generation Macintosh operating system. It introduced a brand new code base completely separate from Mac OS 9's as well as all previous Apple operating systems, and had a new Unix-like core, Darwin, which features a new memory management system. Unlike subsequent releases starting with Mac OS X 10.2, Mac OS X was not externally marketed with its codename.


title: Mac OS X 10.0

text: The features of the release include the Dock which was a new way of organizing one's Mac OS X applications on a user interface, and a change from the classic method of Application launching in previous Mac OS systems. It also included the new OSFMK 7.3 (Open Software Foundation Mach) kernel from the OSF which was part of the XNU kernel for Mac OS X, and was one of the largest changes from a technical standpoint in Mac OS X. Furthermore, it included the Terminal, it was a feature that allowed access to Mac OS X's underpinnings, namely the Unix core; Mac OS had previously had the distinction of being one of the few operating systems with no command line interface at all. Also, it included the Mail email client, it’s features included the ability to configure the software to receive all of a user's email accounts in the one list, ability to file emails into folders, ability to search for emails, and ability to automatically append signatures to outgoing emails. The Address Book was a new application which had features including exporting and importing cards to and from vCard format, API to interface with other applications, change of address notifications, contact groups, auto-merge when importing vCards, customizable fields and categories, the automatic formatting of phone numbers. TextEdit replaced the SimpleText application with new features. The OS introduced full preemptive multitasking support, a long-awaited feature on the Mac. PDF support was added, it allows the user to create PDFs from any application. The OS introduced the new Aqua UI. The OS is built on Darwin, a Unix-like operating system. It also has support for OpenGL, AppleScript and Carbon and Cocoa APIs. Sherlock was introduced, a desktop and web search engine. Protected memory was introduced, it was memory protection so that if an application corrupts its memory, the memory of other applications will not be corrupted.


title: Mac OS X 10.0

text: Mac OS X 10.0 began a short era (that ended with Mac OS X 10.2 Jaguar's release) where Apple offered two types of installation CDs: 1Z and 2Z CDs. The difference in the two lay in the extent of multilingual support.


title: Mac OS X 10.0

text: Input method editors of Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Korean were only included with the 2Z CDs. They also came with more languages (the full set of 15 languages), whereas the 1Z CDs came only with about eight languages and could not actually display simplified Chinese, traditional Chinese and/or Korean (except for the Chinese characters present in Japanese Kanji). A variant of 2Z CDs were introduced when Mac OS X v10.0.3 was released to the Asian market (this variant could not be upgraded to version 10.0.4). The brief period of multilingual confusion ended with the release of v10.2. Currently, all Mac OS X installer CDs and preinstallations include the full set of 15 languages and full multilingual compatibility.


title: Avani Gregg

text: Avani Kiana Gregg (born November 23, 2002) is an American social media personality and make-up artist. She first developed a following on TikTok. Gregg plays Gemma in the web series "Chicken Girls". She received the Shorty Award for TikToker of the Year in 2019, and was on the "Forbes" 30 Under 30 in 2020 in the social media category.


title: Avani Gregg

text: Avani was born in Brownsburg, Indiana, on November 23, 2002. She is of Indian, Mongolian and African American descent. Avani has two sisters, Shanti Gregg and Priya Gregg. Her older sister, Shanti, is also a social media influencer. As a child, Avani was a competitive gymnast until suffering a stress fracture in her back.


title: Avani Gregg

text: Avani posts content related to beauty and makeup. In 2019, Gregg's first viral video on TikTok of her transformation into a Harley Quinn-style clown led viewers to nickname her the "Clown Girl". In December 2019, she joined the LA-based collective The Hype House along with her best friend Charli D'Amelio. Gregg plays the character Gemma in the web series "Chicken Girls". In September 2020, she announced an upcoming memoir published by Gallery Books. In November 2020, she began hosting a Facebook Watch talk show "Here For It" in which she helped fans with Gen-Z issues.


title: Avani Gregg

text: In March 2020, Gregg confirmed she was in a relationship with social media personality Anthony Reeves. They met three years previously through Musical.ly (currently TikTok).


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Troy Trevor Tulowitzki (born October 10, 1984), nicknamed "Tulo", is an American retired professional baseball shortstop, who played 13 seasons in Major League Baseball (MLB), primarily with the Colorado Rockies. He also played for the Toronto Blue Jays and New York Yankees.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: After playing college baseball for California State University, Long Beach, the Rockies selected Tulowitzki with the seventh overall selection of the 2005 MLB Draft. He made his MLB debut the following year. Tulowitzki is a five-time MLB All-Star, a two-time Gold Glove Award winner, and a two-time Silver Slugger Award winner. The Rockies traded him to the Blue Jays in 2015. Tulowitzki missed most of the 2017 season and all of the 2018 season with injuries, and the Blue Jays released him after the 2018 season. In 2019, he signed with the Yankees, playing the first five games of the season before being sidelined with a calf strain; after experiencing setbacks, he announced his retirement from baseball in late July.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki's arm, range and instincts at shortstop were highly regarded. Furthermore, his size, ability and leadership skills garnered him comparisons to Cal Ripken Jr., Alex Rodriguez, and Derek Jeter. In spite of his talent, he fostered a reputation for being an injury-prone player, having played over 140 games in a season only three times and missing at least 30 games in several seasons due to various ailments.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki was born in Santa Clara, California. He graduated from Fremont High School in Sunnyvale, California. He earned four varsity letters in baseball and two in basketball. He was twice named second team All-State in baseball, and was a three-time team most valuable player (MVP). As a junior, Tulowitzki had a batting average of .536. He also had a 15–1 win–loss record as a pitcher. In his senior year, he batted .519 with six home runs. In basketball, Tulowitzki won league MVP, and was second team All-State and team MVP, averaging 22.6 points per game during his senior year. He was named Fremont High Athlete of the Year in 2002.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: After high school, Tulowitzki enrolled at California State University, Long Beach, where he played college baseball for the Long Beach State Dirtbags for three seasons. Tulowitzki had a .962 career fielding percentage. Offensively, in 155 career games, he had a batting average of .310, with 20 home runs, 117 runs batted in (RBIs), 37 doubles, and a .491 slugging percentage. He also accumulated 31 multi-hit games in his collegiate career. "Baseball America" rated him as having the top arm and as the best defensive shortstop in the Big West Conference. Tulowitzki was a two-time All-Big West selection (second team in 2003 and first team in 2004) and a two-time All-Regional Tournament selection, earning Most Outstanding Player (MOP) honors in 2004. In 2004, he was selected for the United States collegiate national team and helped lead Team USA to a gold medal in the World University Baseball Championship.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: The Colorado Rockies chose Tulowitzki with the seventh overall pick in the first round of the 2005 Major League Baseball draft. He received a $2.3 million signing bonus from the Rockies. He made his professional debut with the Modesto Nuts of the Class A-Advanced California League in 2005, and batted .266 in 22 games. In 2006, Tulowitzki played for the Tulsa Drillers of the Class AA Texas League. He had a .291 batting average, 13 home runs, and 61 RBIs in 104 games. Though he had a knee injury in June, he appeared in the 2006 All-Star Futures Game.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: The Rockies promoted Tulowitzki to the major leagues on August 30, 2006. He made his major league debut that day against the New York Mets. He had four at-bats and went hitless with three strikeouts. Tulowitzki made it to the big leagues after playing just 126 minor league games. He collected his first Major League hit, an infield single off Óliver Pérez of the Mets, on August 31. Tulowitzki hit his first MLB home run on September 4, off Woody Williams of the San Diego Padres, in a 7–5 loss. He posted a .240 batting average with one home run and six RBIs in 25 games during the 2006 season.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki entered spring training prior to the 2007 season competing with incumbent Rockies shortstop Clint Barmes for the starting role. After a spring that saw Tulowitzki win the team's spring training MVP award, along with Barmes struggling offensively, Tulowitzki began the season as the Rockies' starting shortstop. On 29 April 2007, Tulowitzki turned the 13th unassisted triple play in MLB history, during a 9–7 home victory at Coors Field over the Atlanta Braves.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: As a rookie, Tulowitzki established himself as a Gold Glove-caliber shortstop. He led all MLB shortstops in fielding percentage (.987), putouts (262), total chances (834), assists (561), and double plays turned (114; two more than Jack Wilson, in 233 more innings). He also ranked first in range factor (5.39) and second in zone rating (.866). Tulowitzki's .987 fielding percentage set an MLB-single season record by a rookie shortstop. He was also a major contributor in the Rockies' MLB-record .98925 fielding percentage for one season. Philadelphia Phillies shortstop Jimmy Rollins won the Gold Glove Award, despite the fact that Tulowitzki had a better fielding percentage (.987 to .985), zone rating, and range factor, and more total chances, putouts, and assists, and turned four more double plays, in fewer innings, than Rollins. They each had 11 errors, but Tulowitzki's came on 834 total chances, compared to Rollins' 717. Tulowitzki did, however, win the Fielding Bible Award at shortstop, which is awarded to the shortstop who a panel of national sports writers, scouts, and sports radio talk show hosts view as the best defensive shortstop in Major League Baseball.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki was named the NL Rookie of the Month for August. On September 10, 2007, Tulowitzki hit his 20th home run of the season, which set the record for most home runs in a single season by a National League rookie shortstop. The previous record was 19, held by Ernie Banks. Tulowitzki hit his first career grand slam on September 29, 2007, in an 11–1 home win over the Arizona Diamondbacks, off of Dustin Nippert. He ended with 24 home runs on the season.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: In the 2007 season, Tulowitzki ranked first among NL rookies in at bats (609), plate appearances (678), games (155), hits (177), doubles (33), runs (104), total bases (292), walks (57) and RBIs (99; two ahead of Ryan Braun, in 158 more at bats than Braun). Tulowitzki's 99 RBIs led all National League shortstops (he was three short of a tie for the MLB lead, held by Detroit Tigers shortstop Carlos Guillén). He set an MLB-single season record in RBIs for a rookie shortstop. He finished second behind Braun in OBP (.359). He was third behind Braun and Hunter Pence in batting average (.291), slugging percentage (.479), OPS (.838) and triples (5). Tulowitzki was also third behind Braun and Chris Young in home runs (24) and extra base hits (62), and tied for ninth in stolen bases (7).


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki tied Young, Rajai Davis and Norris Hopper for the lead among all NL rookies in caught stealing (6), was second to Carlos Ruiz in grounding into double plays (14, which was one more – with 158 more at bats – than third place Braun) and second behind Young in strikeouts (130; leading all NL shortstops). However, Tulowitzki had the third lowest strikeout ratio (21.3%) out of all rookies with at least 400 at-bats, behind Kevin Kouzmanoff (19.4%) and Pence (20.8%). He batted .320 with a .554 slugging percentage and 15 home runs at mile-high Coors Field, but hit only .256 with a .393 slugging percentage and nine home runs in away games. However, one of the reasons for any substantial differences in home and road splits for Rockies batters is that they have to make adjustments in how they see pitches away from Coors Field – particularly breaking balls, such as sliders and curve balls – since those pitches act differently at Coors Field than on the road.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Team veterans alerted Tulowitzki every time Braun, his chief rival for rookie of the year honors, hit a home run.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki came in second in the race for National League Rookie of the Year. The award was voted on by 32 members of the Baseball Writers' Association of America, two from each National League city. Braun beat Tulowitzki, 128 points to 126 points, which was the closest voting in the NL since the current system was adopted in 1980. Tulowitzki also lost to Braun in the vote for the 2007 NL "Sporting News" Rookie of the Year Award, which was voted on by 488 major league players and 30 managers. He lost out to Braun for the 2007 "Baseball America" Rookie of the Year Award, in the vote for the 2007 Players Choice NL Most Outstanding Rookie by their fellow major league players, Fans voted Tulowitzki the "This Year in Baseball" Rookie of the Year, with 27.6% of the vote, ahead of Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia (26.3%) and Braun (22.3%). Tulowitzki was selected to the 2007 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On October 1, 2007, in the one-game Wild Card tie-breaker against the San Diego Padres, Tulowitzki went 4-for-7 with three extra-base hits and scored the tying run in the bottom of the 13th inning. The Rockies won the game, 9–8, and entered the playoffs as the NL wild card team. They faced the Philadelphia Phillies in the National League Division Series. On October 4, 2007, in the second game of the series, Tulowitzki and left fielder Matt Holliday hit back-to-back first-pitch homers in the first inning to begin a 10–5 win, and the Rockies headed to Denver with a 2–0 lead in the series. The Rockies went on to complete a three-game sweep of the Phillies, and advanced to the National League Championship Series, in which they swept the Arizona Diamondbacks in four games. Colorado then played the Boston Red Sox in the World Series, which was the first ever World Series appearance in Rockies history. Boston swept Colorado in four games. Tulowitzki batted .195 in the postseason, with a .267 on-base percentage and 15 strikeouts in 41 at-bats.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On January 23, 2008, Tulowitzki signed a six-year, $31-million contract extension with the Rockies. The deal, which also included a club option for 2014, was the largest-ever contract for a player with less than two years experience until Ryan Braun signed an eight-year, $45-million contract extension with the Brewers on May 15, 2008.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On April 29, 2008, in a 3–2 road win over the San Francisco Giants, Tulowitzki tore a left quadriceps tendon during a defensive play in the first inning. He returned to the Rockies, starting at shortstop, on June 20, in a 7–2 home loss against the New York Mets. On July 5, 2008, Tulowitzki went back on the disabled list after cutting his right palm in the previous day's 18–17 home win over the Florida Marlins. The injury occurred in the bottom of the seventh inning when Tulowitzki slammed a maple bat into the ground in frustration. The incident took place after he was taken out of the game in that same inning; however, he noted that the frustration leading up to his injury wasn't due to being taken out, saying, "I was a little bit frustrated, not at the move. If anything, I thought it was the right move. I came in the hallway, grabbed a bat, hit it on the ground and the bat exploded in my hand and cut open my palm running up to my index finger." The cut required 16 stitches, but no damage was done to any tendons or nerves. Tulowitzki returned to the Rockies lineup, starting at shortstop, on July 21, 2008, in a 16–10 home loss against the Los Angeles Dodgers. He recorded a career-high five hits during the game, as he went 5-for-5 with one RBI. After returning on July 21 he has had six multi-hit games in his past eight games. In 38 games prior to July 21, Tulowitzki had six multi-hit games. Tulowitzki ended the 2008 season with a .263 batting average, eight home runs, and 46 RBIs in 101 games.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On August 10, 2009, Tulowitzki hit for the cycle as part of an 11–5 home win over the Chicago Cubs. He also had a career-high seven RBIs, which tied for the third-most RBIs in MLB history in a game for a player who hit for the cycle. Tulowitzki became the fifth Rockies player to hit for the cycle. He also was the second player in MLB history to hit for the cycle and record an unassisted triple play in a career. Tulowitzki hit a career-high 32 home runs during the season and had a .552 slugging percentage, both of which led all MLB shortstops. He was second in RBIs (92), triples (9), walks (73) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.930). He finished fifth in voting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America for National League MVP.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On June 17, 2010, Tulowitzki fractured his wrist after being hit by a pitch from Minnesota Twins reliever Alex Burnett. He was placed on the disabled list the following day.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On July 4, 2010, Tulowitzki was one of two Rockies, along with starting pitcher Ubaldo Jiménez, selected as a National League All-Star to play in the 2010 Major League Baseball All-Star Game at Angel Stadium of Anaheim. It was Tulowitzki's first All-Star appearance, but due to being on the disabled list since June 18 with a fractured wrist, he was replaced by New York Mets shortstop José Reyes. In September, Tulowitzki hit 14 home runs from September 3 through the 18th, garnering him back-to-back NL Player of the Week honors for September 6–12 and 13–19. He also earned his first National League Player of the Month award for his efforts during the month of September, in which he led all MLB players with 15 home runs, 40 RBI, 30 runs scored and an .800 slugging percentage. Only Babe Ruth had just as many or more home runs (17) and RBIs (43) during that month in MLB history.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki finished the 2010 season leading all MLB shortstops in home runs (27), RBIs (95), batting average (.315), on-base percentage (.381), slugging percentage (.568) and on-base plus slugging percentage (.949). He placed fifth in voting for National League MVP for the second consecutive season. Tulowitzki picked up his first Silver Slugger Award for his offensive prowess. On the defensive side, he had the best fielding percentage (.984) and range factor (5.06) among all shortstops in the National League. He earned his second Fielding Bible Award and first Gold Glove at shortstop. He was also ESPN's 2010 Web Gem champion.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On November 29, 2010, Tulowitzki agreed to sign a six-year extension on top of the three years, with a fourth option year, remaining on his contract. The six-year extension was worth around $120 million, making it the second-largest contract ever signed by a Rockies player (behind Todd Helton's nine-year $141.5 million contract).


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki was elected by his fellow players as a National League reserve for the 2011 All-Star Game in Phoenix, Arizona, but after an injury to starter José Reyes (who was chosen by fans), Tulowitzki became the NL's starting shortstop. He had one hit during the game, which was a single. Tulowitzki won his second consecutive (third overall) Fielding Bible Award, as the best fielding shortstop in MLB. He also received his second consecutive Gold Glove and Silver Slugger Award.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On April 1, 2012, during a spring training game against the Cleveland Indians, Tulowitzki was hit by a pitch on the arm by former teammate Ubaldo Jiménez. Both Tulowitzki and Jiménez came close to each other while the benches cleared. Jiménez received a five-game suspension and an undisclosed fine.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: As the season progressed, Tulowitzki required surgery on his left groin, which ended his season. The injury happened on May 30, during a doubleheader with the Houston Astros. He was limited to 47 games, in which he batted .287 with eight home runs and 27 RBIs.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On June 13, 2013, Tulowitzki suffered a fractured right rib in a 5–4 loss to the Nationals. He was placed on the 15-day disabled list and missed 25 games. Despite the injury, Tulowitzki was selected for the 2013 Major League Baseball All-Star Game. Teammates Carlos González and Michael Cuddyer were also selected, and all three players were in the starting lineup for the National League. Tulowitzki hit .312 in 126 games in 2013, with 25 home runs and 82 RBIs.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki started 2014 by batting .364 in April with seven home runs, nine doubles, and 22 RBIs. His hot start earned him the NL Player of the Month honors for April. On May 3, Tulowitzki singled for his 1,000th career hit in a game against the New York Mets. He injured his left hip during a July 20 game, and underwent labral repair surgery on August 15, which ended his season. Tulowitzki finished the campaign with a .340 batting average in 91 games played. Despite his injury shortened season, he hit 21 home runs with 58 RBI.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki made his fifth All-Star team in 2015 as a replacement for the injured Dee Gordon. He batted .300 with 12 home runs and 53 RBIs in 87 games with the Rockies before being traded.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On July 28, 2015, Tulowitzki was traded, along with teammate LaTroy Hawkins, to the Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for José Reyes, Jeff Hoffman, Miguel Castro and Jesús Tinoco. Upon being informed of the trade during the middle of the ninth inning of a game at the Chicago Cubs, as Blue Jays and Rockies management had kept negotiations secret from the media, Tulowitzki reportedly yelled at Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich and vowed never to speak to him or other members of the Rockies front office. Tulowitzki expressed mixed emotions about the trade, but stated, "I get the chance to play for a contender, and maybe this will revive my career a little bit."


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki made his debut with the Blue Jays on July 29, and went 3-for-5 with a home run, two doubles, three RBIs and three runs scored. During a game against the New York Yankees on September 12, Tulowitzki collided with teammate Kevin Pillar while backpedaling to catch a fly ball in centerfield, and had to leave the game. He was expected to be out for a minimum of 2–3 weeks due to a cracked shoulder blade. Tulowitzki returned to the lineup shortly before the end of the season after missing 18 games, and in total, appeared in 41 games for the Blue Jays in 2015, batting .239 with five home runs and 17 RBIs. The Blue Jays had a record of 50–51 and stood at fourth place in the AL East, but Tulowitzki's arrival helped the Jays go 43–18 for the rest of the regular season to capture the AL East Division title and earn their first playoff berth since 1993.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki played in all 5 games of the 2015 American League Division Series, batting .095 with one home run and four RBIs. In the third game of the 2015 American League Championship Series, Tulowitzki hit a three-run home run and was later ejected, becoming the first American League player to be ejected from a postseason game since Dwight Gooden in 1998. The Blue Jays won the game, 11–8. The Jays advanced to the American League Championship Series, which was won by the Kansas City Royals in six games.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On May 13, 2016, Tulowitzki hit his 200th career home run in a win over the Texas Rangers. On May 28, he was placed on the 15-day disabled list due to a right quad strain. He was reactivated on June 18, having missed 20 games due to the injury. Tulowitzki struggled in 2016, batting a career low .254 in 131 games, though he also hit 24 home runs with 79 RBIs.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki was placed on the 10-day disabled list on April 22, 2017 after suffering a hamstring injury. He returned to the lineup on May 26 after missing 31 games. On July 29, Tulowitzki was placed back on the disabled list with a sprained right ankle, which he injured running to first base. He was later diagnosed with ligament damage. On August 9, he was moved to the 60-day disabled list, ruling him out for the season. In 66 games, Tulowitzki hit .249 with seven home runs and 26 RBIs.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Early in 2018 spring training, it was announced that Tulowitzki had a bone spur in his right ankle, and that he would miss the start of the Grapefruit League season. On March 4, John Gibbons stated Tulowitzki was unlikely to be ready for Opening Day. Tulowitzki did not appear in any spring training games, and was placed on the 60-day disabled list to begin the year. On March 30, it was announced that his bone spurs required surgery. He missed the entire 2018 season. On December 11, 2018, Tulowitzki was released by the Blue Jays. The Blue Jays still owed $38 million on the two remaining years of Tulowitzki's contract.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On January 4, 2019, Tulowitzki signed a one-year contract with the New York Yankees. They paid him the major league minimum salary of $555,000 and the contract included a no-trade clause. He won the starting shortstop job with Didi Gregorius injured for the start of the season.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: He hit his first home run as a Yankee and also his last professional home run, a solo shot in the bottom of the 9th inning, against Baltimore Orioles' and former Yankees left-handed reliever Richard Bleier on March 30, 2019.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: After playing in five games to begin the season, he went on the IL with a left calf strain. On June 7, he was transferred to the 60-day injured list.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: On July 25, Tulowitzki announced his retirement from Major League Baseball through a statement by the Yankees.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: In 1291 games over 13 seasons, Tulowitzki posted a .290 batting average (1391-for-4804) with 762 runs scored, 264 doubles, 24 triples, 225 home runs, 780 RBI, 57 stolen bases, 511 walks, .361 on-base percentage, and .495 slugging percentage. Defensively, he recorded a .985 fielding percentage playing every inning of his MLB career at shortstop. He is virtually tied with Omar Vizquel for highest all-time career fielding percentage as a shortstop. In 35 postseason games, he hit just .213 with 4 home runs and 22 RBI but handled 146 total chances (58 putouts,88 assists) without an error for a perfect 1.000 fielding percentage in postseason play.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Upon retiring as a player, Tulowitzki was hired by the Texas Longhorns as an assistant coach. With the Longhorns, he specializes as a hitting and infield coach. In 2021, he coached the USA Baseball collegiate baseball team.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki is of Polish descent, Tulowitzki has a sister, Tiffany, who plays softball, and a brother, Tyler, who played baseball for San Francisco State University.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: Tulowitzki's favorite player growing up was Derek Jeter. His jersey number with the Rockies and Blue Jays was No. 2, due to his admiration of Jeter. In a television interview with ESPN, Tulowitzki stated that his favorite team growing up was the Oakland Athletics and that his favorite musical artist is Jay-Z.


title: Troy Tulowitzki

text: In November 2009, Tulowitzki married his high school sweetheart, Danyll Gammon, in Portola Valley, California. In January 2014, the Tulowitzkis welcomed a son. They reside in Austin, Texas.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Emilio Ernest Delgado (May 8, 1940 – March 10, 2022) was an American actor best known for his role as Luis, the Fix-it Shop owner, on the children's television series "Sesame Street". Delgado joined the cast of "Sesame Street" in 1971 and remained until his contract was not renewed in late 2016, as part of Sesame Workshop's re-tooling of the series.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Following his departure, the workshop stated that Delgado would continue to represent them at public events. Delgado also appeared as Luis in the TV special "Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration". He began his professional career in Los Angeles in 1968. Delgado lived in New York City with his wife Carole and also served on the board of directors at the Bayard Rustin Center for Social Justice, an LGBT safe-place, community activist center, and educational bridge dedicated to honoring Bayard Rustin through their mission and good works.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado was born in Calexico, California, to Emilio Delgado and Carmen Rodriguez Delgado on May 8, 1940.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: He was raised in his grandparents' house in Mexicali, Mexico, with his poor extended family. As a citizen of the United States, he would walk daily to attend a public school in Calexico. He began working odd jobs as a ten year old, and at his uncle's bicycle shop at age 12. His family moved to Glendale, California when he was a teenager. During high school, three years of which he attended Glendale High School, he became president of the Thespian Club, played trombone both in their orchestra and a jazz band, and was a drum major in the marching band.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado was "adamantly and morally opposed" to the Vietnam War, but enlisted in the California Army National Guard for six years, serving domestically. A supply corporal, Delgado was deployed to the Watts riots in Los Angeles, in 1965, where he was "astonished to see weekend warriors being issued live ammunition to use against other Americans."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado began acting professionally in 1968, after nine years of "trying to knock doors down in Los Angeles to get in." That year, he received his first Equity job in a summer stock play starring Martha Raye, and later was cast in the first Mexican-American soap opera, "Cancion de la Raza".


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Befriending actor Sergei Tschernisch at Los Angeles theatre company Inner City Repertory, Delgado learned of the new theatre program at CalArts, led by Provost Herb Blau. While already a professional actor as of his 1970 enrollment, Delgado praised Blau's methods, suggesting his avant-garde method was "amazing."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: As of 1970, he was the artistic director of the new Mexican-American Centre of Creative Arts, which taught Chicano high school and college students from the basement of the Euclid Heights Community Centre in East Los Angeles. Delgado told the "Los Angeles Times": "We are 100% positive in our approach, and we are uncompromising in our belief that our kids will come away thinking of themselves as artists. Nothing is going to stop us from attaining our identification in American society."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado had a guest role in an October 1970 episode "Storefront Lawyers", before being cast as a series regular in "Angie's Garage", in November 1970. The new children's series focused on serving Mexican-American children. He was billed as a singer-guitarist. He speculated that "Sesame Street" producers discovered him through the series.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: On "Sesame Street", his character, Luis along with Raul Julia as Rafael, were the first human additions to the original cast. Luis was a handyman and an aspiring writer, who debuted on the show in 1971 simultaneously with Julia. Together they ran the L&R Fix-It Shop until Julia left the show after one season, and Luis ran the Fix-It Shop alone from then on.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: The enormous popularity of "Sesame Street" created a barrage of groups providing input on the curriculum in its second season. During the season, the program attempted to teach Spanish to children whose mother tongue was English. Producer Jon Stone told "The Pittsburgh Press" that their attempts were "a disaster. It was tokenism at best, and condescension at worst." For the third season, the show rebooted their efforts, adding Puerto Ricans and Chicanos, and creating new Spanish segments. Seven new cast members were added at the start of the season, including Delgado, Panchito Gómez, Raul Julia, and Sonia Manzano. Delgado was still enrolled at CalArts, as of casting. Delgado's character, Luis, ran "The Fix-It Shop," a repair service on Sesame Street, alongside Julia's Rafael. The character has been described as the "antithesis" of the Mexican and Latino stereotypes that proliferated television at the time, as he was "an honest, upstanding, hard-working, affable person." Delgado expected the role to last one or two seasons.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado joined the series' live events by at least 1972, when he performed with the Jackson Symphony Orchestra.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado was named the coordinator of the Children's Television Workshop's Bilingual Task Force, and sent across the country to meet with groups. The efforts were to lead to further updates to content in season 4. He commented in 1972 that the series didn't "teach Spanish, we teach in Spanish."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado is believed to have played "the same role on U.S. television longer than any other Mexican-American actor," according to CalArts.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: During "Sesame Street" 19th season, first aired in 1988, Luis fell in love with Maria, performed by Sonia Manzano, and married her. The characters Luis and Maria taught viewers about Hispanic culture and language throughout their shared run of the show. According to Delgado, "to this day, there are fans out there who want to believe that the Luis and Maria wedding episode in 1988 was real, "but the fact of the matter is, it was just terrific acting."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado later appeared at various pop culture conventions, often under the brand "Humans of Sesame Street". Delgado also reprised the role of Luis in the TV special "Sesame Street's 50th Anniversary Celebration".


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado also performed in live shows throughout his "Sesame Street" career, singing the songs of "Sesame Street" and entertaining thousands of children and their families.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado took guest roles on other series while "Sesame Street" was not taping. Notably, he had a recurring role as national news editor Rubin Castillo on the television series "Lou Grant".


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado starred in "Quixote Nuevo" that premiered in 2018 at CalShakes Theater in Berkeley, California, then went on tour in 2019 to Hartford Stage, Boston's Huntington Theatre and Houston's Alley Theatre production (2020) of Octavio Solis, a modern Chicano adaptation of "Don Quixote".


title: Emilio Delgado

text: In Los Angeles, he was a company member of Inner City Rep, The Group Repertory, and LA Repertory. Some of his New York City theatre credits include "Floating Home" (HExTC), "Boxing 2000" (Richard Maxwell NYC Players), "Dismiss All the Poets" (New York Fringe Festival 2002), Nilo Cruz's adaptation of "A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings" Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey, Dinosaurios (IATI), "Night Over Taos" INTAR Theatre an adaptation How the García Girls Lost Their Accents" Round House Theatre and Emilio appeared in the role of King Claudius in Asolo Repertory Theatre production of "Hamlet, Prince of Cuba", with alternating performances in English and Spanish, where one reviewer wrote that Delgado "is equally brilliant as King Claudius".


title: Emilio Delgado

text: His other television appearances include "House of Cards", "Law & Order", "", and "". He was a regular cast member of "Lou Grant" and the short-lived "Born to the Wind". He also appeared in episodes of "Police Story"; "Hawaii Five-O"; and "Quincy, M.E."


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Delgado's other creative endeavor was to sing and record with the band Pink Martini. He performed with the band at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall in New York City, The Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, in Woodinville, Washington at the Chateau Ste. Michelle Winery, and in Portland, Oregon at the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall, Crystal Ballroom and the Oregon Zoo. He appears on their album "Splendor in the Grass", in which he recorded the song "Sing", a duet with China Forbes.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: Emilio and Carole were married in Bermuda, January 28, 1990. Delgado has a daughter, Lauren, from his present marriage, and a son, Aram, from a previous marriage.


title: Emilio Delgado

text: In December 2020, Delgado was diagnosed with multiple myeloma. He died from the disease at his home in Manhattan, New York City, on March 10, 2022, at the age of 81.


title: SSX Tricky

text: SSX Tricky, also known as SSX 2 or SSX 2: Tricky, is a snowboarding video game, the second game in the "SSX" series published by Electronic Arts under the EA Sports BIG label and developed by EA Vancouver. A direct sequel to "SSX", the game was originally released in 2001 for PlayStation 2, GameCube, and Xbox, It was later ported to the Game Boy Advance in October 2002. "SSX 3" followed in 2003.


title: SSX Tricky

text: In "SSX Tricky", players can choose among twelve characters, participate in races or trick competitions, and earn rewards. It is named after Run-D.M.C.'s "It's Tricky", a song that is featured throughout the game. Additionally, the game includes a behind-the-scenes making-of video, which is labelled DVD Content in the main menu. One of the major new features is the addition of Uber Tricks, absurdly unrealistic and exaggerated tricks, often involving detaching the board from the snowboarder's feet. The player can gain access to Uber Tricks during play after filling the adrenaline bar; performing six Uber Tricks earns the player unlimited boost for the rest of the race. Another added feature is the rivalry system, where knocking down an opponent will make them more hostile.


title: SSX Tricky

text: "SSX Tricky" was the first game in the series to be released on multiple consoles, as the original "SSX" was one of PS2's launch games. Its PS2 version received a 92% score on Metacritic, sold over 800,000 units worldwide, and like other games in the series achieved Platinum status. Though reviewers felt that the game was more an improved version of "SSX" rather than a true sequel, it was critically acclaimed for its added features, voice acting, and general improvements, leading to calls for a remake into the 2020s.


title: SSX Tricky

text: Gameplay continues the same basic method introduced in the original "SSX". The main tracks are remixes from the previous game like Merqury City, which takes place in a New York City-based downtown area, and Tokyo Megaplex, a course resembling a giant pinball machine, plus two new tracks, Garibaldi and Alaska. It features twelve characters: the returning Elise Riggs, Mackenzie "Mac" Fraser (NTSC version), Kaori Nishidake, Zoe Payne, Moby Jones, and Jean-Paul "JP" Arsenault, plus new ones like Psymon Stark, Edward "Eddie" Wachowski, Seeiah Owens, Luther-Dwayne Grady, Marisol Diez Delgado, Broderick "Brodi" Ford, Martin "Marty" Stieber (PAL version), who replaces Mac, and Kim Yuri (NTSC Korean version), who replaces Kaori. Hiro Karamatsu and Jurgen Angermann did not return, which was justified as suffering off-season injuries. Winning medals in a variety of events unlocks new courses, characters, and boards, as well as improved the boarder's abilities. New outfits may be earned by completing a character's trick book, by doing a number of specific tricks during play. Three kinds of boards are available to players: trick-oriented Freestyle boards, all-around BX boards, and racing-oriented Alpine boards, which are not meant to be ridden backwards.


title: SSX Tricky

text: The important new feature added to the series are the Uber moves. If players are able to fill their boost bar to the maximum, they will be able to perform Uber moves, which involve characters taking their feet off their board and doing over the top moves. If a player successfully lands an Uber move, they are given a short amount of time for infinite boost, which can be topped off by performing more Uber moves. Each player can perform five Uber moves, including a personal move if the character is using a board that matches their style. If a player successfully performs six Uber moves, spelling out "TRICKY" on the boost bar, they will have infinite boost for the remainder of the race. Also introduced in the game is a rivalry system in the World Circuit mode. If the player is friendly with another artificial intelligence (AI) character, they will treat the player favourably; however, if the player ends up annoying other AI characters, generally by attacking them during the race in order to fill the adrenaline bar, they will become hostile towards players in future events.


title: SSX Tricky

text: "SSX Tricky" was developed by EA Canada and created by Steven Rechtschaffner, who had worked as a producer for EA's "FIFA Soccer 96" and the "Triple Play" baseball series, and was produced by Larry LaPierre and Adam Mackay-Smith, the latter of whom was working on EA's "Need for Speed" racing series at that time.


title: SSX Tricky

text: The PlayStation 2 (PS2) version received universal acclaim, and the GameCube (GC) and Xbox versions received favorable reviews, while the Game Boy Advance (GBA) version received average reviews according to Metacritic, a video game review aggregator. It was a runner-up in "GameSpot"s annual award categories for the best Xbox game and best alternative sports console game, losing to "" and "Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3", respectively.


title: SSX Tricky

text: Most reviews hesitated before calling the game a true sequel, since it shared a large amount of content with the original "SSX", which was published in 2000, and all but two of the courses appear in the original. Peter Suclu reviewed the PS2 version of the game for "Next Generation", rating it four stars out of five, and stated: "If you haven't played "SSX", this is a must-buy, but if you already own the game, the full-price 'expansion pack' is hardly revolutionary." Reviews like that of "IGN"s Aaron Boulding complimented the added features, such as Uber tricks and rivalry with other boarders. Some reviewers, such as Shan Satterfield for "GameSpot", thought that the improvements over the original were so good that "SSX Tricky" was billed as the best snowboarding game to date. "IGN"s Peer Schneider wrote: "Overall, the PS2 "SSX Tricky" delivers the best control setup for returning players, but if you've never played "SSX" before you might as well go for the best-looking and sounding version: "SSX Tricky" for Xbox."


title: SSX Tricky

text: The voice acting, which included Lucy Liu, David Arquette, Macy Gray, Oliver Platt, and Billy Zane, was praised by reviewers, including "GameSpy"s Michael G. Moen, who commented that the use of celebrities like Liu helped bring the outrageous characters to life. The music system received much acclaim, as it was able to adapt to suit the situation. Each course had specific songs paired with it to match the mood and when riders reached maximum boost or were knocked down, the music reacted accordingly. The size of the environments, the detail of the graphics, and the trick system also received plenty of recognition from reviewers. In Japan, "Famitsu" gave it a score of 32 out of 40 for the GC version, 30 out of 40 for the PS2 version, and three sevens and one eight (29/40) for the Xbox version.


title: SSX Tricky

text: The PS2 version sold over 800,000 units worldwide, earning the Platinum status. In predicting the sales for the game, "" said: "It's quite unfortunate if I do say so myself, because a AAA title like "SSX Tricky" won't be getting the sales it really deserves." "SSX Tricky" remains decades later one of the best games in the extreme sports genre. In 2016, "IGN" called it the 95th best PS2 game. The staff cited its improvements over its predecessor, including "flashier Uber moves".


title: SSX Tricky

text: "SSX Tricky" is noted to have increased the popularity of Run-DMC's song "It's Tricky", which is used as the game's main theme. The renowned song's connection to the game and its fans led to its inclusion in the 2012 reboot "SSX".


title: SSX Tricky

text: Into the 2020s, amid a number of games getting remade, fans have been clamoring for a remake of "SSX Tricky". In 2020, Steven Rechtschaffner, the producer of "SSX Tricky", expressed his interest and the possibility of a remake of the game. When the game's successor "SSX 3" was re-released for Xbox One in 2018, he was impressed, saying that a remake of "SSX Tricky" could work. Rechtschaffner said that it is not his decision but rather of the developers and EA, who own the intellectual property.


title: SSX Tricky

text: In 2021, Rechtschaffner said he was working on a spiritual successor of "SSX", revealed to be "Project Gravity", a free-to-play live service snowboarding game from Rechtschaffner's team at Supernatural Studios.


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: Vidhi Pandya is an Indian actress who works in Hindi television. She made her acting debut in 2014 with "Tum Aise Hi Rehna" portraying Kiran Mehra. Pandya is best known for her portrayal of Imli Singh Rajvanshi in "Udaan", Suman Tiwari Malhotra in "Ek Duje Ke Vaaste 2" and Soumya Verma in "Mose Chhal Kiye Jaaye".


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: Pandya made her acting debut in 2014 with "Tum Aise Hi Rehna" portraying Kiran Maheshwari. She then portrayed Nidhi Anand in "Balika Vadhu" from 2015 to 2016. In 2015, she played Rohini Singh / Sophia in various episodes of "Crime Patrol".


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: From 2016 to 2019, Pandya portrayed Imli Singh Rajvanshi in "Udaan" opposite Paras Arora and Vikas Bhalla, which proved as a major turning point in her career.


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: She then appeared in an episode of "Kitchen Champion" in 2019. The same year, she played Rani in an episode of "Laal Ishq" as Rani alongside Saheem Khan and Mehnaz Shroff.


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: Pandya in 2021 portrayed Major Dr. Suman Tiwari Malhotra in "Ek Duje Ke Vaaste 2" opposite Mohit Kumar. In October 2021, she participated in "Bigg Boss 15" and got evicted by housemates on Day 18.


title: Vidhi Pandya

text: In 2022, she portrayed the role of Soumya Verma in "Mose Chhal Kiye Jaaye" opposite Vijayendra Kumeria.


title: Emile Haynie

text: Emile Haynie (born July 13, 1980), often credited simply as Emile, is an American music producer from Buffalo, New York. His range of production includes alternative rock, hip hop, indie and pop music. Haynie has worked with several prominent artists in the music industry including Kanye West, Kid Cudi, Eminem, Lana Del Rey, Bruno Mars, Linkin Park, FKA Twigs, Florence Welch and Camila Cabello, among others. Additionally, Haynie received two Grammy Awards for his work with English singer Adele, namely Album of the Year for the diamond certified "25" as well as Record of the Year for "Hello".


title: Emile Haynie

text: Emile Haynie is a native of Buffalo, New York. He started primarily as a sample-driven hip-hop producer and got his first big break after handing off a beat CD to now-deceased Detroit rapper Proof. He then began producing for various members of Eminem’s Detroit camp, as well as New York City rappers Raekwon, Cormega, and C-Rayz Walz. He relocated to New York City and got his start as a hip hop producer in the early 2000s, collaborating with rappers Obie Trice, Ghostface Killah, The Roots, Cormega, M.O.P., Rhymefest, and AZ. His career grew and, by the second half of 2000's first decade, he had worked with Ice Cube, Slaughterhouse, Eminem, Kanye West and Kid Cudi.