prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What league includes the operating group of Al Janoub Stadium?

The following are given passages.
Context 1: Passage 1:
Huntington Stadium
Huntington Stadium (formerly Ryedale Stadium) is the former stadium of English rugby league teams York Wasps, and York City Knights 

History
The stadium, which was financed by Ryedale District Council and was initially named the Ryedale Stadium, was completed in October 1989 York Wasps played their first ever match at the Huntington Stadium when they lost to Hull Kingston Rovers 36–26 in front of a crowd of 3,105 2009 saw the first ever game at the stadium live on Sky Sports  York were victorious as they beat Oldham 20–18 to go second in the Championship The 2014 season was announced as the final season for the York City Knights  They won the league and lifted the trophy at the final home league game against London Skolars  The final game at Huntington Stadium ended in a 32–24 defeat for the York City Knights by Hunslet Hawks in the Championship 1 Play Off Semi Final 

Demolition and Replacement
It had long been proposed that the Knights should share a new municipal stadium with York City F C  and it was announced in July 2010 that the preferred location would be the site of the current Huntington Stadium A community archaeology project was undertaken by York Archaeological Trust in 2015 to record the site of a Roman Marching Camp Site  The work of the local community project "Dig York Stadium" produced a historical record After the York Dig had concluded on 19 June 2015 it appeared that demolition of Huntington Stadium would be able to commence  However, the project faced more delays after a legal challenge to its planning application The new municipal stadium, known as York Community Stadium, opened in December 2020 
Passage 2:
2014–15 Oman Professional League
The 2014–15 Oman Professional League (known as the Omantel Professional League for sponsorship reasons) was the 39th edition of the top football league in Oman  The season began on 11 September 2014, and concluded on 28 May 2015  Al-Nahda Club were the defending champions, having won their third title in the previous 2013–14 season  On Saturday, 9 May 2015, Al-Oruba SC were crowned the champions of the 2014–15 Oman Professional League with three games to spare after Sur SC was held to a 2–2 draw by Al-Suwaiq Club at the Al-Seeb Stadium  Al-Oruba who had beaten Sohar SC, 1–0 on Friday took their tally to 48 points from 23 matches, gaining an unassailable lead of eight points ahead of second-placed Sur  Sur, which needed to win on Saturday to keep their title hopes alive, and settled for one point to take its tally to 40 points, helping the fierce rivals from Sur city to win their 4th domestic title 

Teams
This season the league has 14 teams  Majees SC and Al-Ittihad Club were relegated to the First Division League after finishing in the relegation zone in the 2013–14 season  Al-Nasr S C S C  however again managed to play in the top division as they won the Relegation/Promotion playoff against Al-Mudhaibi Club  The two relegated teams were replaced by First Division League winners Al-Khabourah SC, runners-up Bowsher Club 
The winner and the runner-up will qualify for the 2016 AFC Cup 

Stadiums and locations
Note: Table lists clubs in alphabetical order 

Personnel and kits
Note: Flags indicate national team as has been defined under FIFA eligibility rules  Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality 

Managerial changes
Foreign players
Restricting the number of foreign players strictly to four per team, including a slot for a player from AFC countries  A team could use four foreign players on the field during each game including at least one player from the AFC country 

League table
Results
Clubs season-progress
Promotion/relegation play-off
As of 31 May 2015

1st leg
2nd leg
Sohar secured promotion after winning 2–1 on aggregate

Season statistics
As of 29 May 2015

Hat-tricks
OFA Awards
Oman Football Association awarded the following awards for the 2014–15 Oman Professional League season 
Top Scorer: Mechac Koffi (Al-Nasr)
Best Player: Eid Al-Farsi (Al-Oruba)
Most Promising Young Player: Mohammed Al-Najashi (Sur)
Best Goalkeeper: Riyadh Al-Alawi (Al-Oruba)
Best Coach: Philippe Burle (Al-Oruba)
Best Team Manager: Hussain Mustahil (Al-Nasr)
Fair Play Award: Al-Suwaiq

Media coverage
Controversies
The league was the subject of controversies like the refusal of Omani referees to officiate in the league matches and boycott of the Professional League by clubs 
Before the beginning of the 2014–15 season, nine top clubs of the Oman Professional League demanded the cancellation of the Professional League  It was reported that the presidents of the nine clubs (Al-Oruba, Dhofar, Al-Seeb, Al-Nahda, Fanja, Bowsher, Sohar, Al-Shabab and Sur) held a meeting in the head office of Sur SC on 7 June 2014 in order to discuss the experience of different clubs of the professional league  The statement released by the clubs after this meeting sparked a wave of controversy as all these nine clubs decided to hold a meeting with Sayyid Khalid Al-Busaidi, Chairman of the Oman Football Association and demand the cancellation of the 2014–15 season of the Oman Professional League  The reason given out was that the clubs were unable to meet the financial demands laid out by the association and also that the association failed to fulfill the promises made before the beginning of the pro-league system In a major embarrassment for the Oman Football Association (OFA), all its top-division referees boycotted the three-day opening round of the prestigious Omantel Professional League (OPL), which began on 11 September 2014, over a payment issue  This was the first ever instance in Oman of OFA-accredited referees boycotting top-flight domestic league matches over a stand-off  The referees refused to officiate in the opening-round matches on 11 September 2014, 12 September 2014 and 13 September 2014 over long-standing bonus payments from the OFA  The row over pending bonus payments for the referees had been brewing since the conclusion of the inaugural edition of OPL last season  The first round match between Sur SC and Al-Seeb Club was postponed from the scheduled time to another time and the match between Dhofar S C S C  and Al-Khaboora SC which was also scheduled to be held on 11 September was postponed to the next day because of the refusal of Omani referees to officiate in the league matches  The OFA, under the chairmanship of Sayyid Khalid al Busaidy, managed to defuse the crisis by requesting the UAE football body to send match officials to get the OPL started  UAE duly responded, sending 16 officials - eight referees and eight linesmen - who officiated in the seven opening-round matches that went ahead as scheduled from Thursday to Saturday at various venues in Oman On 11 December 2014, defending champions Al-Nahda failed to turn up against Dhofar in an OPL match at the Al-Saada Stadium in Salalah; the Oman Professional League's Disciplinary Committee handed the result of the abandoned match in favour of Dhofar (3-0) and docked Al-Nahda a total of nine points - three for skipping the 11 December fixture and six more as penalty On 11 February 2015, 4 (Al-Musannah, Al-Seeb, Bowsher and Fanja) out of the 14 clubs participating in the 2014–15 Oman Professional League along with 8 other Omani clubs decided to go ahead with their demand for an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) with the aim of introducing a no-confidence motion against the association's  board members On 7 March 2015, 10 out of 39 clubs attending a consultative meeting of the OFA walked out in protest midway into the proceedings  walkout was triggered by the OFA's decision to call off an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM), which was originally scheduled for 7 March 2015  However, the OFA which had previously agreed for an EGM, on 6 March 2015 shelved the summit, citing a letter from the FIFA, football's world governing body  On the very next day, the OFA cancelled the membership of 11 clubs (Ahli Sidab, Al-Ittifaq, Al-Kamel Wa Al-Wafi, Al-Musannah, Al-Seeb, Bowsher, Dhofar, Fanja, Ibri, Ja'lan and Nizwa) for illegally withdrawing from the consultative meeting conducted by the OFA 

See also
Passage 3:
Bassel al-Assad Stadium (Homs)
Bassel al-Assad Stadium (Arabic: ملعب باسل الأسد) is a multi-use stadium located in the Baba Amr district in the city of Homs, Syria  It was opened in 2000, and is mostly used for football matches and serves as a second venue for the football clubs of Al-Karamah SC and Al-Wathba SC  Located in the Baba Amr district of the city, the stadium is able to hold up to 25,000 spectators  It was renovated in 2010 During the Syrian Civil War, Baba Amr was the epicentre of fighting in the 2012 Homs offensive  As a result, the stadium  was heavily damaged and the playing surface was entirely deteriorated  However, the stadium was renovated during 2016 and a new turf was installed 

See also
List of football stadiums in Syria
Passage 4:
Saoud bin Abdulrahman Stadium
The Saoud bin Abdulrahman al-Thani Stadium (Arabic: ملعب سعود بن عبدالرحمن), also known as Al-Wakrah SC Stadium, is a multi-purpose stadium in Al Wakrah, Qatar  It is currently used mostly for football matches  It is the home venue of Al-Wakrah Sports Club  The stadium has a capacity of 12,000 seats A new stadium named Al Janoub Stadium is being built in the vicinity in time for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and will be used as Al-Wakrah Sports Club’s home, after the world cup During the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the site was used as the training base for England 
Passage 5:
Al Kharaitiyat SC
Al Kharaitiyat Sport Club (Arabic: نادي الخريطيات) is a Qatari sports club based in the town of Al Kharaitiyat, best known for its football team of the Qatari Second Division  They won promotion 
in 2004 and played in the Qatari Stars League the following season  However, they were relegated the following season  They once again regained their position in the top flight in the 2008–09 season 

History
Al Kharaitiyat is among the newest sports clubs in Qatar, having been formed in 1996 as Al-Hilal  Among the founders were:

Upon its formation, it was entered into the Qatari Second Division  After winning the second division title in 2004, they earned a spot in the top tier, the Qatar Stars League  Shortly after, the club was renamed to its current name, Al Kharaitiyat, on 19 October 2004 by a decision of the vice-president of the Qatar Olympic Committee in order to better represent the district it is located in  The team was relegated from the Stars League in the 2004–05 season after a 3–3 draw with Al Ahli on 6 April, 2005 with two matches left to play in the season In 2008 the team was once again promoted to the Stars League 

Supporters
A fan club was established in 2008 after the team won promotion to the Qatar Stars League 

Stadium history
Honours
Domestic
Qatari Second Division
Winners (2): 2004, 2020
Qatari Stars Cup
Runners-up (1): 2012

Current squad
As of Qatari Second Division:

Personnel
Club staff
Last updated 11 November 2018 

Management
Managerial history
Last updated 20 May 2021 

Notes
Note 1: Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani served as the first president of the club 
Passage 6:
Hassan Abyan
Hassan (Arabic: حسان) is a Yemeni football team currently playing in the Yemeni League, where they finished in 2nd place in the 2007 competition  It is based in Abyan   Their home stadium is Al-Shohada'a Stadium 
Passage 7:
San Diego Spirit
The San Diego Spirit was a professional soccer team that played in the Women's United Soccer Association  The team played at Torero Stadium on the campus of the University of San Diego in San Diego, California  The team began play in 2001  The league announced on September 15, 2003, it was suspending operations 
The founding members of the Spirit were Julie Foudy, Shannon MacMillan and Joy Fawcett  The team reached the playoffs in the 2003 season, losing to the Atlanta Beat in the semifinals  Other notable members of the Spirit included Scotland's Julie Fleeting, Brazil's Daniela and Canada's Christine Latham, as well as U S  national team players Jenni Branam, Aly Wagner and Shannon Boxx 

Year-by-year
Players
The "founding players" of the Spirit were Julie Foudy, Shannon MacMillan and Joy Fawcett of the 1999 U S  Women's World Cup team 2003 Roster 
Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules  Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality 

Coach: Omid Namazi

Coaches
Carlos Juarez (2001-2002)
Kevin Crow (2002)
Omid Namazi (2003)

League suspension
The WUSA announced on September 15, 2003, that it was suspending operations 

See also
List of soccer clubs in the United States
Women's association football
Passage 8:
Al Karkh Stadium
Al-Saher Ahmed Radhi Stadium (Arabic: ملعب الساحر احمد راضي, lit  'Magician Ahmed Radhi Stadium') is a multi-use stadium in Baghdad, Iraq  It is used mostly for football matches and serves as the home stadium of Al-Karkh  The stadium holds 5,150 people 
The stadium was originally called Al-Mansour Local Administration Stadium and was renamed Al-Rasheed Stadium when Al-Rasheed SC took over the ground in 1984  It became known as  Al-Karkh Stadium after Al-Karkh replaced the dissolved Al-Rasheed in the top division in 1990 
In June 2020, following the death of former Al-Rasheed player Ahmed Radhi, the stadium was renamed Al-Saher Ahmed Radhi Stadium 

Gallery
See also
List of football stadiums in Iraq
Passage 9:
Mohammed Muddather
Mohmad Mdether Driss Rajeb (born 13 April 1988) is a Sudanese born-Qatari footballer who plays for Qatari club Al-Sailiya in the Qatar Stars League 

Club career
Rajeb started his career with Al-Ahly Shendi in Sudan and joined in the spring of 2007 to Qatar Stars League club Al-Wakrah  In December 2011 left Al-Wakrah and joined to Qatar Stars League rival Lekhwiya SC  From 2013 to 2016 he played for Al-Arabi SC  In August 2016, he joined Al-Sailiya SC 
Passage 10:
Major League Baseball
Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization  One of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada, MLB comprises 30 teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), with 29 in the United States and 1 in Canada  Formed in 1876 and 1901, respectively, the NL and AL cemented their cooperation with the National Agreement in 1903, making MLB the oldest major professional sports league in the world  They remained legally separate entities until 2000, when they merged into a single organization led by the Commissioner of Baseball  MLB is headquartered in Midtown Manhattan Baseball's first all-professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was founded in 1869  The first few decades of professional baseball saw rivalries between leagues, and players often jumped from one team or league to another  The period before 1920 was the dead-ball era, when home runs were rarely hit  Professional baseball survived the Black Sox Scandal, a conspiracy to fix the 1919 World Series, then rose in popularity in the following decade  It survived the Great Depression and World War II  Shortly after the war, Jackie Robinson broke baseball's color barrier 
The 1950s and 1960s saw the AL and NL add clubs; some moved around the country  Modern stadiums with artificial turf surfaces began to change the game in the 1970s and 1980s  Home runs dominated the game during the 1990s  In the mid-2000s, media reports disclosed the use of anabolic steroids among MLB players; a 2006-07 investigation produced the Mitchell Report, which found that many players had used steroids and other performance-enhancing substances, including at least one player from each team 
Each team plays 162 games per season, and six teams in each league advance to a four-round postseason tournament that culminates in the World Series, a best-of-seven championship series between the two league champions first played in 1903  The New York Yankees have the most championships with 27  The defending champions are the Houston Astros, who defeated the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2022 World Series 
MLB is the second-wealthiest professional sport league by revenue after the National Football League (NFL)  Baseball games are broadcast on television, radio, and the internet throughout North America and in several other countries  MLB has the highest total season attendance of any sports league in the world; in 2018, it drew more than 69 6 million spectators MLB also oversees Minor League Baseball, which comprises lower-tier teams affiliated with the major league clubs  MLB and the World Baseball Softball Confederation jointly manage the international World Baseball Classic tournament 

Organizational structure
MLB is governed by the Major League Baseball Constitution  This document has undergone several incarnations since its creation in 1876  Under the direction of the Commissioner of Baseball, MLB hires and maintains the sport's umpiring crews, and negotiates marketing, labor, and television contracts  MLB maintains a unique, controlling relationship over the sport, including most aspects of Minor League Baseball  This is due in large part to the 1922 U S  Supreme Court ruling in Federal Baseball Club v  National League, which held that baseball is not interstate commerce and therefore not subject to federal antitrust law; MLB is the only league that has such a status, and has not faced any competition since this case  This ruling has been weakened only slightly in subsequent years  The weakened ruling granted more stability to the owners of teams and has resulted in values increasing at double-digit rates  There were several challenges to MLB's primacy in the sport, with notable attempts to establish competing leagues occurring during the late 1800s, from 1913 to 1915 with the short-lived Federal League, and in 1960 with the aborted Continental League The chief executive of MLB is the commissioner, currently Rob Manfred  The deputy commissioner of baseball administration and chief legal officer is currently Dan Halem  There are seven other executives: executive vice president and general counsel, chief operations and strategy officer, chief communications officer, chief financial officer and senior advisor, executive vice president and chief marketing officer, chief revenue officer, and chief baseball development officer The multimedia branch of MLB is MLB Advanced Media, which is based in New York City  This branch oversees MLB com and each of the 30 teams' websites  Its charter states that MLB Advanced Media holds editorial independence from the league, but it is under the same ownership group and revenue-sharing plan  MLB Productions is a similarly structured wing of the league, focusing on video and traditional broadcast media  MLB also owns 67 percent of MLB Network, with the other 33 percent split between several cable operators and satellite provider DirecTV  It operates out of studios in Secaucus, New Jersey, and also has editorial independence from the league 

League organization
In 1920, the weak National Commission, which had been created to manage relationships between the two leagues, was replaced with the much more powerful Commissioner of Baseball, who had the power to make decisions for all of professional baseball unilaterally  From 1901 to 1960, the American and National Leagues fielded eight teams apiece 
In the 1960s, MLB expansion added eight teams, including the first non-U S  team (the Montreal Expos)  Two teams (the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays) were also added in the 1970s  From 1969 through 1993, each league consisted of an East and West Division  In 1993, the National League expanded with two teams, the Florida Marlins and the Colorado Rockies, to even up the number of teams in both leagues  A third division, the Central Division, was formed in each league in 1994  Until 1996, the two leagues met on the field only during the World Series and the All-Star Game  Regular-season interleague play was introduced in 1997 In March 1995, two new franchises, the Arizona Diamondbacks and Tampa Bay Devil Rays (now known as the Tampa Bay Rays), were awarded by MLB, which began play in 1998  This addition brought the total number of franchises to 30  In early 1997, MLB decided to assign one new team to each league: Tampa Bay joined the AL and Arizona joined the NL  The original plan was to have an odd number of teams in each league (15 per league, with five in each division), but in order for every team to be able to play daily, this would have required interleague play to be scheduled throughout the entire season  However, it was unclear at the time if the interleague play would continue after the 1998 season, as it had to be approved by the players' union  For this and other reasons, it was decided that both leagues should continue to have an even number of teams, and therefore, one existing club would have to switch leagues  The Milwaukee Brewers agreed in November 1997 to move from the AL to the NL, thereby making the NL a 16-team league  At the same time, the Detroit Tigers agreed to move from the AL East to the AL Central (to replace Milwaukee), with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays joining the AL East  Later, when the Houston Astros changed ownership prior to the 2013 season, the team moved from the NL Central to the AL West, resulting in both leagues having three divisions of five teams each and allowing all teams to have a more balanced schedule  Interleague play is now held throughout the season In 2000, the AL and NL were dissolved as legal entities, and MLB became a single, overall league de jure, similar to the National Football League (NFL), National Basketball Association (NBA) and National Hockey League (NHL)—albeit with two components called "leagues" instead of "conferences"  The same rules and regulations are used in both leagues, with one former exception: the AL operated under the designated hitter (DH) rule, while the NL did not  This difference in rules between leagues was unique to MLB, as the other major professional sports leagues in the U S  and Canada have one set of rules for all teams In 2020, the National League (NL) used the designated hitter (DH) rule for the first time  As part of the settlement of the 2021–22 Major League Baseball lockout, this change was made permanent thus making the rules in the two leagues identical 

Teams
An asterisk (*) denotes a relocation of a franchise  See respective team articles for more information 

History
Founding
In the 1860s, aided by soldiers playing the game in camp during the Civil War, "New York"-style baseball expanded into a national game and spawned baseball's first governing body, the National Association of Base Ball Players (NABBP)  The NABBP existed as an amateur league for 12 years  By 1867, more than 400 clubs were members  Most of the strongest clubs remained those based in the Northeastern United States  For professional baseball's founding year, MLB uses the year 1869—when the first professional team, the Cincinnati Red Stockings, was established A schism developed between professional and amateur ballplayers after the founding of the Cincinnati club  The NABBP split into an amateur organization and a professional organization  The National Association of Professional Base Ball Players, often known as the National Association (NA), was formed in 1871  Its amateur counterpart disappeared after only a few years  The modern Chicago Cubs and Atlanta Braves franchises trace their histories back to the National Association of Professional Base Ball Players in the 1870s In 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs (later known as the National League or NL) was established after the NA proved ineffective  The league placed its emphasis on clubs rather than on players  Clubs could now enforce player contracts, preventing players from jumping to higher-paying clubs  Clubs were required to play the full schedule of games instead of forfeiting scheduled games when the club was no longer in the running for the league championship, which happened frequently under the NA  A concerted effort was made to curb gambling on games, which was leaving the validity of results in doubt  The first game in the NL—on Saturday, April 22, 1876 (at Jefferson Street Grounds in Philadelphia)—is often pointed to as the beginning of MLB 

The early years of the NL were tumultuous, with threats from rival leagues and a rebellion by players against the hated "reserve clause", which restricted the free movement of players between clubs  Teams came and went; 1882 was the first season where the league's membership was the same as the preceding season's, and only four franchises survived to see 1900  Competitor leagues formed regularly and also disbanded regularly  The most successful was the American Association (1882–1891), sometimes called the "beer and whiskey league" for its tolerance of the sale of alcoholic beverages to spectators  For several years, the NL and American Association champions met in a postseason championship series—the first attempt at a World Series  The two leagues merged in 1892 as a single 12-team NL, but the NL dropped four teams after the 1899 season  This led to the formation of the American League in 1901 under AL president Ban Johnson, and the resulting bidding war for players led to widespread contract-breaking and legal disputes The war between the AL and NL caused shock waves throughout the baseball world  At a meeting at the Leland Hotel in Chicago in 1901, the other baseball leagues negotiated a plan to maintain their independence  A new National Association was formed to oversee these minor leagues After 1902, the NL, AL, and NA signed a new National Agreement which tied independent contracts to the reserve-clause contracts  The agreement also set up a formal classification system for minor leagues, the forerunner of today's system that was refined by Branch Rickey 

Other recognized leagues
Several other early defunct baseball leagues are officially considered major leagues, and their statistics and records are included with those of the two current major leagues  In 1969, the Special Baseball Records Committee of Major League Baseball officially recognized six major leagues: the National League, American League, American Association, Union Association (1884), Players' League (1890), and Federal League (1914–1915)  The status of the National Association as a major league has been a point of dispute among baseball researchers; while its statistics are not recognized by Major League Baseball, its statistics are included with those of other major leagues by some baseball reference websites, such as Retrosheet  Some researchers, including Nate Silver, dispute the major-league status of the Union Association by pointing out that franchises came and went and that the St  Louis club was deliberately "stacked"; the St  Louis club was owned by the league's president and it was the only club that was close to major-league caliber  In December 2020, Major League Baseball announced its recognition of seven leagues within Negro league baseball as major leagues, and in 2021, baseball reference website Baseball-Reference com began to include statistics from those seven leagues into their major-league statistics 

Dead-ball era
The period between 1900 and 1919 is commonly referred to as the "dead-ball era"  Games of this era tended to be low-scoring and were often dominated by pitchers, such as Walter Johnson, Cy Young, Christy Mathewson, Mordecai Brown, and Grover Cleveland Alexander  The term also accurately describes the condition of the baseball itself  The baseball used American rather than the modern Australian wool yarn and was not wound as tightly, affecting the distance that it would travel  More significantly, balls were kept in play until they were mangled, soft and sometimes lopsided  During this era, a baseball cost three dollars, equal to $50 64 today (in inflation-adjusted USD), and owners were reluctant to purchase new balls  Fans were expected to throw back fouls and (rare) home runs  Baseballs also became stained with tobacco juice, grass, and mud, and sometimes the juice of licorice, which some players would chew for the purpose of discoloring the ball Also, pitchers could manipulate the ball through the use of the spitball  (In 1921 use of this pitch was restricted to a few pitchers with a grandfather clause ) Additionally, many ballparks had large dimensions, such as the West Side Grounds of the Chicago Cubs, which was 560 feet (170 m) to the center field fence, and the Huntington Avenue Grounds of the Boston Red Sox, which was 635 feet (194 m) to the center field fence, thus home runs were rare, and "small ball" tactics such as singles, bunts, stolen bases, and the hit-and-run play dominated the strategies of the time  Hitting methods like the Baltimore Chop were used to increase the number of infield singles  On a successful Baltimore chop, the batter hits the ball forcefully into the ground, causing it to bounce so high that the batter reaches first base before the ball can be fielded and thrown to the first baseman The adoption of the foul strike rule in the early twentieth century quickly sent baseball from a high-scoring game to one where scoring runs became a struggle  Prior to the institution of this rule, foul balls were not counted as strikes: a batter could foul off any number of pitches with no strikes counted against him; this gave an enormous advantage to the batter  In 1901, the NL adopted the foul strike rule, and the AL followed suit in 1903 After the 1919 World Series between the Chicago White Sox and Cincinnati Reds, baseball was rocked by allegations of a game fixing scheme known as the Black Sox Scandal  Eight players—"Shoeless" Joe Jackson, Eddie Cicotte, Claude "Lefty" Williams, George "Buck" Weaver, Arnold "Chick" Gandil, Fred McMullin, Charles "Swede" Risberg, and Oscar "Happy" Felsch—intentionally lost the World Series in exchange for a ring worth $100,000 ($1,712,780 35 in 2022 dollars)  Despite being acquitted, all were permanently banned from Major League Baseball 

Rise in popularity
Baseball's popularity increased in the 1920s and 1930s  The 1920 season was notable for the death of Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians  Chapman, who was struck in the head by a pitch and died a few hours later, became the only MLB player to die of an on-field injury, a tragedy which led directly to both leagues requiring the placing into play new, white baseballs whenever a ball became scuffed or dirty, helping bring the "dead-ball" era to an end  The following year, the New York Yankees made their first World Series appearance  By the end of the 1930s, the team had appeared in 11 World Series, winning eight of them  Yankees slugger Babe Ruth had set the single-season home run record in 1927, hitting 60 home runs; a few years earlier, Ruth had set the same record with 29 home runs Affected by the difficulties of the Great Depression, baseball's popularity had begun a downward turn in the early 1930s  By 1932, only two MLB teams turned a profit  Attendance had fallen, due at least in part to a 10% federal amusement tax added to baseball ticket prices  Baseball owners cut their rosters from 25 men to 23 men, and even the best players took pay cuts  Team executives were innovative in their attempts to survive, creating night games, broadcasting games live by radio, and rolling out promotions such as free admission for women  Throughout the period of the Great Depression, no MLB teams moved or folded 

World War II era
The onset of World War II created a significant shortage of professional baseball players, as more than 500 men left MLB teams to serve in the military  Many of them played on service baseball teams that entertained military personnel in the US or in the Pacific  MLB teams of this time largely consisted of young men, older players, and those with a military classification of 4F, indicating mental, physical, or moral unsuitability for service  Men like Pete Gray, a one-armed outfielder, got the chance to advance to the major leagues  However, MLB rosters did not include any black players through the end of the war  Black players, many of whom served in the war, were still restricted to playing Negro league baseball Wartime blackout restrictions, designed to keep outdoor lighting at low levels, caused another problem for baseball  These rules limited traveling and night games to the point that the 1942 season nearly had to be canceled  On January 14, 1942, MLB Commissioner Kenesaw Mountain Landis wrote a letter to U S  President Franklin D  Roosevelt and pleaded for the continuation of baseball during the war in hopes for a start of a new major league season  President Roosevelt responded, "I honestly feel that it would be best for the country to keep baseball going  There will be fewer people unemployed and everybody will work longer hours and harder than ever before  And that means that they ought to have a chance for recreation and for taking their minds off their work even more than before "With the approval of President Roosevelt, spring training began in 1942 with few repercussions  The war interrupted the careers of stars including Stan Musial, Bob Feller, Ted Williams, and Joe DiMaggio, but baseball clubs continued to field their teams 

Breaking the color barrier
Branch Rickey, president and general manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers, began making efforts to introduce a black baseball player to the previously all-white professional baseball leagues in the mid-1940s  He selected Jackie Robinson from a list of promising Negro league players  After obtaining a commitment from Robinson to "turn the other cheek" to any racial antagonism directed at him, Rickey agreed to sign him to a contract for $600 a month  In what was later referred to as "The Noble Experiment", Robinson was the first black baseball player in the International League since the 1880s, joining the Dodgers' farm club, the Montreal Royals, for the 1946 season The following year, the Dodgers called up Robinson to the major leagues  On April 15, 1947, Robinson made his major league debut at Ebbets Field before a crowd of 26,623 spectators, including more than 14,000 black patrons  Black baseball fans began flocking to see the Dodgers when they came to town, abandoning the Negro league teams that they had followed exclusively  Robinson's promotion met a generally positive, although mixed, reception among newspaper writers and white major league players  Manager Leo Durocher informed his team, "I don't care if he is yellow or black or has stripes like a fucking zebra  I'm his manager and I say he plays "After a strike threat by some players, NL President Ford Frick and Baseball Commissioner Happy Chandler let it be known that any striking players would be suspended  Robinson received significant encouragement from several major-league players, including Dodgers teammate Pee Wee Reese who said, "You can hate a man for many reasons  Color is not one of them " That year, Robinson won the inaugural Major League Baseball Rookie of the Year Award (separate NL and AL Rookie of the Year honors were not awarded until 1949) Less than three months later, Larry Doby became the first African-American to break the color barrier in the American League with the Cleveland Indians  The next year, a number of other black players entered the major leagues  Satchel Paige was signed by the Indians and the Dodgers added star catcher Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe, who was later the first winner of the Cy Young Award for his outstanding pitching 

Women in baseball
MLB banned the signing of women to contracts in 1952, but that ban was lifted in 1992  There have been no female MLB players 

Relocation and expansion
From 1903 to 1953, the major leagues consisted of two eight-team leagues whose 16 teams were located in ten cities, all in the northeastern and midwestern United States: New York City had three teams and Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and St  Louis each had two teams  St  Louis was the southernmost and westernmost city with a major league team  The longest possible road trip, from Boston to St  Louis, took about 24 hours by railroad  After a half-century of stability, starting in the 1950s, teams began to move out of cities with multiple teams into cities that had not had them before  In three consecutive years from 1953 to 1955, three teams moved to new cities: the Boston Braves became the Milwaukee Braves, the St  Louis Browns became the Baltimore Orioles, and the Philadelphia Athletics became the Kansas City Athletics 
The 1958 Major League Baseball season was perhaps the pivotal season in making Major League Baseball a nationwide league  Walter O'Malley, owner of the Brooklyn Dodgers, moved his team to Los Angeles, marking the first major league franchise on the West Coast  Called "perhaps the most influential owner of baseball's early expansion era," O'Malley appeared on the cover of Time as a result of his efforts to move baseball to a more nationwide sport O'Malley was also influential in persuading the rival New York Giants to move west to become the San Francisco Giants  The Giants were already suffering from slumping attendance records at their aging ballpark, the Polo Grounds  Had the Dodgers moved out west alone, the St  Louis Cardinals—1,600 mi (2,575 km) away—would have been the closest NL team  The joint move made West Coast road trips economical for visiting teams  O'Malley invited San Francisco Mayor George Christopher to New York to meet with Giants owner Horace Stoneham  Stoneham was considering moving the Giants to Minnesota, but he was convinced to join O'Malley on the West Coast at the end of 1957  The meetings between Stoneham, Christopher and O'Malley occurred against the wishes of Ford Frick, the Commissioner of Baseball  The dual moves were successful for both franchises—and for MLB  The Dodgers set a single-game MLB attendance record in their first home appearance with 78,672 fans In 1961, the first Washington Senators franchise moved to Minneapolis–St  Paul to become the Minnesota Twins  Two new teams were added to the American League at the same time: the Los Angeles Angels (who soon moved from downtown L A  to nearby Anaheim) and a new Washington Senators franchise  The NL added the Houston Astros and the New York Mets in 1962  The Astros (known as the "Colt  45s" during their first three seasons) became the first southern major league franchise since the Louisville Colonels folded in 1899 and the first franchise to be located along the Gulf Coast  The Mets established a reputation for futility by going 40–120 during their first season of play in the nation's media capital—and by playing only a little better in subsequent campaigns—but in their eighth season (1969) the Mets became the first of the 1960s expansion teams to play in the postseason, culminating in a World Series title over the heavily favored Baltimore Orioles 
In 1966, the major leagues moved to the "Deep South" when the Braves moved to Atlanta  In 1968, the Kansas City Athletics moved west to become the Oakland Athletics  In 1969, the American and National Leagues both added two expansion franchises  The American League added the Seattle Pilots (who became the Milwaukee Brewers after one disastrous season in Seattle) and the Kansas City Royals  The NL added the first Canadian franchise, the Montreal Expos, as well as the San Diego Padres 
In 1972, the second Washington Senators moved to the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to become the Texas Rangers  In 1977, baseball expanded again, adding a second Canadian team, the Toronto Blue Jays, as well as the Seattle Mariners  Subsequently, no new teams were added until the 1990s and no teams moved until 2005 

Pitching dominance and rule changes
By the late 1960s, the balance between pitching and hitting had swung in favor of the pitchers  In 1968—later nicknamed "the year of the pitcher"—Boston Red Sox player Carl Yastrzemski won the American League batting title with an average of just  301, the lowest in the history of Major League Baseball  Detroit Tigers pitcher Denny McLain won 31 games, making him the only pitcher to win 30 games in a season since Dizzy Dean in 1934  St  Louis Cardinals starting pitcher Bob Gibson achieved an equally remarkable feat by allowing an ERA of just 1 12 Following these pitching performances, in December 1968 the MLB Playing Rules Committee voted to reduce the strike zone from knees to shoulders to top of knees to armpits and lower the pitcher's mound from 15 to 10 inches, beginning in the 1969 season In 1973, the American League, which had been suffering from much lower attendance than the National League, sought to increase scoring even further by initiating the designated hitter (DH) rule 

New stadiums and artificial surfaces
Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, as baseball expanded, NFL football had been surging in popularity, making it economical for many of these cities to build multi-purpose stadiums instead of single-purpose baseball fields  Because of climate and economic issues, many of these facilities had playing surfaces made from artificial turf, as well as the oval designs characteristic of stadiums designed to house both baseball and football  This often resulted in baseball fields with relatively more foul territory than older stadiums  These characteristics changed the nature of professional baseball, putting a higher premium on speed and defense over home-run hitting power since the fields were often too big for teams to expect to hit many home runs and foul balls hit in the air could more easily be caught for outs Teams began to be built around pitching—particularly their bullpens—and speed on the basepaths  Artificial surfaces meant balls traveled quicker and bounced higher, so it became easier to hit ground balls "in the hole" between the corner and middle infielders  Starting pitchers were no longer expected to throw complete games; it was enough for a starter to pitch 6–7 innings and turn the game over to the team's closer, a position which grew in importance over these decades  As stolen bases increased, home run totals dropped  After Willie Mays hit 52 home runs in 1965, only one player (George Foster) reached that mark until the 1990s 

Scandals and a changing game
During the 1980s, baseball experienced a number of significant changes the game had not seen in years  Home runs were on the decline throughout the decade, with players hitting only 40 home runs just 13 times and no one hitting more than 50 home runs in a season for the first time since the Dead-ball era (1900–1919) The 1981 Major League Baseball strike from June 12 until July 31 forced the cancellation of 713 total games and resulted in a split-season format 
In 1985, Pete Rose broke Ty Cobb's all-time hits record with his 4,192nd hit, and in 1989 Rose received a lifetime ban from baseball as a result of betting on baseball games while manager of the Cincinnati Reds  Rose was the first person to receive a lifetime ban from baseball since 1943  1985 also saw the Pittsburgh drug trials which involved players who were called to testify before a grand jury in Pittsburgh related to cocaine trafficking 
The 1994–95 Major League Baseball strike from August 12, 1994, to April 25, 1995, caused the cancellation of over 900 games and the forfeit of the entire 1994 postseason In 2019, Major League Baseball opened an investigation into allegations that members of the 2017 World Series champion Houston Astros stole signs from opposing teams using technology during the 2017 and 2018 seasons  The Astros were found guilty in January 2020 and while no active players faced any repercussions, Astros general manager Jeff Luhnow and field manager A  J  Hinch were suspended for the entire 2020 season  The Astros were fined the maximum allowable $5 million and forfeited their first- and second-round picks in the 2020 and 2021 drafts 

Steroid era, further expansion and near contraction
Routinely in the late 1990s and early 2000s, baseball players hit 40 or 50 home runs in a season, a feat that was considered rare even in the 1980s  It has since become apparent that at least some of this power surge was a result of players using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs 
In 1993, the NL added the Florida Marlins in Miami and the Colorado Rockies in Denver  In 1998, the Brewers switched leagues by joining the National League, and two new teams were added: the NL's Arizona Diamondbacks in Phoenix and the AL's Tampa Bay Devil Rays in Tampa Bay 
After the 2001 season, the team owners voted in favor of contraction  Several MLB teams had been considered for elimination in early talks about contraction, but the Montreal Expos and the Minnesota Twins were the two teams that came closest to folding under the plan  Plans for MLB contraction were halted when the Twins landlord was awarded a court injunction that required the team to play its 2002 home games at their stadium  MLB owners agreed to hold off on reducing the league's size until at least 2006 The Montreal Expos became the first franchise in over three decades to move when they became the Washington Nationals in 2005  This move left Canada with just one team, but it also returned baseball to Washington after a 33-year absence  This franchise shift, like many previous ones, involved baseball's return to a city that had been previously abandoned  Not counting the short-lived Federal League, Montreal is the only city to host an MLB franchise since 1901 that, as of December 2022, does not currently have a team 

The modern game
In recent years, with the advent of technologies such as Statcast and its use of Hawk-Eye starting in 2020 as well as with advanced statistics as provided by sites such as FanGraphs and Baseball Savant, MLB has evolved  With the ability to see precise movements of pitchers and batters, teams can assess the mechanics of a player and help them improve  Statcast also provides some features such as tracking the paths of most batted balls, tracking the speed of most batted balls, and tracking the exit velocity of most batted balls  Statcast has allowed for advanced defensive analytics that have not been possible before tracking of players due to how subjective fielding can be 
The rate of teams using a defensive shift has gone up from 13 7% in 2016 to 33 6% in 2022 because advanced statistics support this as an effective way to stop hitters from getting hits  Because the shift reduces the amount of balls in play that result in hits and MLB wishes to increase interest in baseball, MLB announced in September 2022 that extreme infield defensive shifts would be banned starting in 2023  In order to be compliant, there must be two fielders on each side of second base, and those fielders must have both of their feet on the infield dirt at the time the pitch is thrown  If this rule is not followed, the choice of an automatic ball or the outcome of the play is given to the batting team The game of baseball has also slowed down significantly due to an increased number of strikeouts and walks—two outcomes that generally take many pitches to complete—and an increased amount of time taken for a pitcher to pitch  In 2020, it took an average of three hours and six minutes to complete a 9 inning game, a number which has steadily ticked up for years  Along with the restrictions on defensive shifts, MLB announced the introduction of a pitch clock for the 2023 season and beyond, which is something that has been an experiment in MiLB for a few years  The pitch clock starts at 15 seconds  By the time the clock reaches 10 seconds, the catcher must be in their crouch behind home plate  When the clock reaches 8 seconds, the batter must be in the batter's box and be "alert"  Before the 15 second timer reaches 0 seconds, the pitcher must have started their "motion to pitch"  If any of these deadlines are violated, the count of the batter will be increased by one ball if the defending team violated the pitch clock or one strike if it is the offensive team who violated the pitch clock  Additionally, in order to prevent circumventing these rules pickoffs and step-offs which reset the pitch clock are only allowed two times total per plate appearance and, if a pitcher attempts a third pickoff and fails to get the runner out, a balk will be called  Similarly, a batter is restricted to calling a timeout (an action which resets the pitch clock) just once per plate appearance 

Uniforms
A baseball uniform is a type of uniform worn by baseball players, and by some non-playing personnel, such as field managers and coaches  It is worn to indicate the person's role in the game and—through the use of logos, colors, and numbers—to identify the teams and their players, managers, and coaches Traditionally, home uniforms display the team name on the front, while away uniforms display the team's home location  In modern times, however, exceptions to this pattern have become common, with teams using their team name on both uniforms  Most teams also have one or more alternate uniforms, usually consisting of the primary or secondary team color on the vest instead of the usual white or gray  In the past few decades throwback uniforms have become popular The New York Knickerbockers were the first baseball team to use uniforms, taking the field on April 4, 1849, in pants made of blue wool, white flannel shirts (jerseys) and straw hats  Caps and other types of headgear have been a part of baseball uniforms from the beginning  Baseball teams often wore full-brimmed straw hats or no cap at all since there was no official rule regarding headgear  Under the 1882 uniform rules, players on the same team wore uniforms of different colors and patterns that indicated which position they played  This rule was soon abandoned as impractical In the late 1880s, Detroit and Washington of the National League and Brooklyn of the American Association were the first to wear striped uniforms  By the end of the 19th century, teams began the practice of having two different uniforms, one for when they played at home in their own baseball stadium and a different one for when they played away (on the road) at the other team's ballpark  It became common to wear white pants with a white color vest at home and gray pants with a gray or solid (dark) colored vest when away  By 1900, both home and away uniforms were standard across the major leagues In June 2021, MLB announced a long-term deal with cryptocurrency exchange FTX, which includes the FTX logo appearing on umpire uniforms during all games  FTX is MLB's first-ever umpire uniform patch partner  On November 11, 2022, FTX filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection 

Season structure
Spring training
Spring training is a series of practices and exhibition games preceding the start of the regular season  Teams hold training camps in the states of Arizona and Florida, where the early warm weather allows teams to practice and play without worrying about the late winter cold  Spring training allows new players to compete for roster and position spots and gives existing team players practice time prior to competitive play  The teams that hold spring training in Arizona are grouped into the Cactus League, while teams that hold camp in Florida are known as the Grapefruit League  Spring training has always attracted fan attention, drawing crowds who travel to the warmer climates to enjoy the weather and watch their favorite teams play, and spring training usually coincides with spring break for many college students  Autograph seekers also find greater access to players during spring training Spring training typically lasts almost two months, starting in mid-February and running until just before the season-opening day, traditionally the first week of April  As pitchers benefit from a longer training period, pitchers and catchers begin spring training several days before the rest of the team 

Regular season
Each team plays 162 games per season  A team's schedule is typically organized into three-game series, sets of consecutive games against the same opponent, with occasional two- or four-game series  Postponed games or continuations of suspended games can result in an ad hoc one-game or five-game series  All games of a series are usually hosted by the same team and multiple series are typically grouped together  I e, a team usually hosts several series in a row, called a homestand, and follows that by going on several road series in a row  Teams generally play games five to seven days per week  Most games are scheduled at night, although teams will often play day games on Opening Day, holidays, and for the last game of a series to allow teams extra time to travel to their next opponent  Sunday games are generally played during the afternoon, allowing teams to travel to their next destination prior to a Monday night game 
In the current three-division structure, each team plays 19 games against each of its four divisional opponents  It plays one home series and one away series, amounting to six or seven games, against the 10 other teams in its league  A team also plays one of the divisions in the other league, rotating each year, with two opponents in a three-game home series, two in a three-game away series, and one with four games split between home and away  Furthermore, each team has an interleague "natural rival" (in many cases its counterpart in the same metro area) with which it plays two home games and two away games each year 
With an odd number of teams in each league (15), it is necessary to have two teams participate in interleague play for most days in the season, except when two or more teams have a day off  Each team plays 20 interleague games throughout the season, usually with just one interleague game per day, but for one weekend in late May, all teams will participate in an interleague series  Before 2013, interleague play was structured differently: there would be one weekend in mid-May and another period consisting typically of the last two-thirds of June in which all teams played interleague games (save for two NL teams each day), and no interleague games were scheduled outside those dates  (Before 2013, season-long interleague play was not necessary, because each league had an even number of teams  In 2013, the Houston Astros moved to the American League, so that each league would have 15 teams ) Prior to the adoption of the universal designated hitter in 2022, whether the DH was in use depended on whether the home team was from the AL, where the DH was used, or the NL, where it was not 
Starting with the 2023 season, the scheduling formula is set to change, with each team playing at least one series against every other team every year  Each team will play 14 games against teams in the same division, with one 3-game and one 4-game series at each park, six games against teams within the same league but in other divisions, with one 3-game series at each park, and one 3-game series against teams in the other league, alternating home teams each year, except for each team's designated interleague rival, which will continue to consist of two 2-game series at each of the teams' home parks 
Beginning with the 2022 season, teams compete for the six playoff berths in their respective leagues  To secure a berth, a team must either win its division or capture a wild card spot by having one of the three best records among the non-winners in its entire league  With the adoption of a third wild card, the former practice of breaking ties with an additional regular-season game, known as  game 163, was dropped in favor of a tie-breaker formula 

All-Star Game
In early-to-mid July, just after the midway point of the season, the Major League Baseball All-Star Game is held during a four-day break from the regular-season schedule  The All-Star Game features a team of players from the American League (AL)—led by the manager of the previous AL World Series team—and a team of players from the National League (NL), similarly managed, in an exhibition game  From 1959 to 1962, two games were held each season, one was held in July and one was held in August  The designated-hitter rule was used in the All-Star Game for the first time in 1989  Following games used a DH when the game was played in an AL ballpark  Since 2010, the DH rule has been in effect regardless of venue The first official All-Star Game was held as part of the 1933 World's Fair in Chicago, Illinois, and was the idea of Arch Ward, then sports editor for The Chicago Tribune  Initially intended to be a one-time event, its great success resulted in making the game an annual one  Ward's contribution was recognized by Major League Baseball in 1962 with the creation of the "Arch Ward Trophy", given to the All-Star Game's Most Valuable Player each year  (In 1970, it was renamed the Commissioner's Trophy, until 1985, when the name change was reversed  In 2002, it was renamed the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player Award )Beginning in 1947, the eight position players in each team's starting lineup have been voted into the game by fans  The fan voting was discontinued after a 1957 ballot-box-stuffing scandal in Cincinnati: seven of the eight slots originally went to Reds players, two of whom were subsequently removed from the lineup to make room for Willie Mays and Hank Aaron  Fan voting was reinstated in 1970 and has continued ever since, including Internet voting in recent years The 2002 contest in Milwaukee controversially ended in an 11-inning tie when both managers ran out of pitchers  In response, starting in 2003 the league which wins the All-Star game received home-field advantage in the World Series: the league champion hosted the first two games at its own ballpark as well as the last two (if necessary)  The National League did not win an All-Star game and thus gain a home-field advantage until 2010; it was able to overcome this disadvantage and win in three of the seven World Series from 2003 to 2009  This was discontinued after the 2016 season MLB All-Stars from both leagues have worn uniforms from their respective teams at the game with one exception  In the 1933 All-Star Game, the National League All-Star Team members wore special gray uniforms with "National League" written in navy blue letters across the front of the jersey On July 3, 2020, it was announced that the 2020 Major League Baseball All-Star Game scheduled to be held in Los Angeles would not be played due to the COVID-19 pandemic  As compensation, Los Angeles was awarded the next available All-Star Game in 2022 

Postseason
The regular season ends after the first Sunday in October (or the last Sunday in September), after which twelve teams enter the postseason playoffs  These twelve teams consist of the six division champions and six "wild-card" teams: the team with the best overall win–loss record in each of the six divisions, and the three teams in each league with the best records other than the division champions  Four rounds of series of games are played to determine the champion:
Wild Card Series, a best of three games playoff between the lowest seeded division champion and three "wild-card teams", the higher seeds will host all three games
American League Division Series and National League Division Series, each a best-of-five-games series 
American League Championship Series and National League Championship Series, each a best-of-seven-games series played between the winning teams from the Division Series  The league champions are referred to as the pennant winners 
World Series, a best-of-seven-games series played between the pennant winners of each league Within each league, the division winners are the No  1, No  2, and No  3 seeds, based on win–loss records  The team with the best record among non-division winners will be the first wildcard and the No  4 seed  The team with the second-best record among non-division winners will be the second wildcard and the No  5 seed  The team with the third-best record will the third wild card and the No 6  seed  In the wildcard round, the No  3 seed will host the No 6 seed and the No  4 seed with host the No 5 seed with the higher team host all three games in the Wild Card Series   For the division series, the matchup will be the No  1 seed against the  winner of the No 3 and  No 6 seed and the No  2 seed against the winner of  No 4 and No 5 seed, unlike the NFL there will be no reseeding   Since 2017, home-field advantage in the World Series is determined by regular-season records of the two league champions, replacing a system used for the prior 14 seasons where the champion of the league that won the All-Star Game would receive home-field advantage Because each postseason series is split between the home fields of the two teams, the home-field advantage does not usually play a large role in the postseason unless the series goes to its maximum number of games, giving one team an additional game at home  However, the first two games of a postseason series are hosted by the same team  That team may have an increased chance of starting the series with two wins, thereby gaining some momentum for the rest of the series 

International play
Since 1986 an All-Star team from MLB is sent to a biennial end-of-the-season tour of Japan, dubbed as MLB Japan All-Star Series, playing exhibition games in a best-of format against the All-Stars from Nippon Professional Baseball (NPB) or recently as of 2014 their national team Samurai Japan 
In 2008, MLB played the MLB China Series in the People's Republic of China  It was a series of two spring-training games between the San Diego Padres and Los Angeles Dodgers  The games were an effort to popularize baseball in China MLB played the MLB Taiwan All-Star Series in Taiwan in November 2011  It was a series of five exhibition games played by a team made up of MLB players called the MLB All-Stars and the Chinese Taipei national baseball team  The MLB All-Stars swept the series, five games to zero  At the end of the 2011 season, it was announced that the Seattle Mariners and the Oakland Athletics would play their season openers in Japan  In October 2013, Phil Rogers of the Chicago Tribune wrote that MLB was considering postseason all-star tours in Taiwan and Korea; baseball is increasing in popularity in both countries The Arizona Diamondbacks opened the 2014 season against Los Angeles Dodgers on March 22–23 in Australia  The teams played each other at the historic Sydney Cricket Ground, which has a seating capacity of 46,000  The two games represented the first MLB regular-season play held in that country  The games counted as home games for the Diamondbacks, so they played 79 home games at Chase Field In 2019, the Red Sox were the home team in a regular-season two-game series against the Yankees  The games, which were the first regular-season MLB games held in Europe, were played on June 29–30 at London Stadium with the Yankees winning both games Together with the World Baseball Softball Confederation, MLB sponsors the World Baseball Classic, an international baseball tournament contested by national teams 

Performance-enhancing drugs
In 1998, both Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa hit more home runs than the record of 61 set by Yankees right fielder Roger Maris in 1961  Barry Bonds topped the record in 2001 with 73 home runs  McGwire, Bonds, and Sosa became the subjects of speculation regarding the use of performance-enhancing substances  McGwire later admitted that he used a steroid hormone that was still legal in baseball during the 1998 season  Baseball's original steroid testing policy, in effect from 2002 to 2005, provided for penalties ranging from a ten-game suspension for a first positive test to a one-year suspension for a fourth positive test  Players were tested at least once per year, with the chance that several players could be tested many times per year A 2006 book, Game of Shadows by San Francisco Chronicle investigative reporters Lance Williams and Mark Fainaru-Wada, chronicled alleged extensive use of performance enhancers, including several types of steroids and growth hormone by baseball superstars Barry Bonds, Gary Sheffield, and Jason Giambi  Former Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell was appointed by Selig on March 30, 2006 to investigate the use of performance-enhancing drugs in MLB  The appointment was made after several influential members of the U S  Congress made negative comments about both the effectiveness and honesty of MLB's drug policies and Commissioner Selig The day before the Mitchell Report was to be released in 2007, Selig said, "I haven't seen the report yet, but I'm proud I did it " The report said that after mandatory random testing began in 2004, HGH treatment for athletic enhancement became popular among players, as HGH is not detectable in tests  It pointed out that HGH is likely a placebo with no performance-enhancing effects  The report included substance use allegations against at least one player from each MLB team According to ESPN, some people questioned whether Mitchell's director role with the Boston Red Sox created a conflict of interest, especially because no "prime [Sox] players were in the report " The report named several prominent Yankees who were parts of World Series clubs; there is a long-running and fierce Yankees–Red Sox rivalry  Former U S  prosecutor John M  Dowd brought up Mitchell's conflict of interest, but he later said that the former senator had done a good job  Mitchell acknowledged that his "tight relationship with Major League Baseball left him open to criticism", but he said that readers who examine the report closely "will not find any evidence of bias, of special treatment of the Red Sox" On January 10, 2013, MLB and the players union reached an agreement to add random, in-season HGH testing  They also agreed to implement a new test to reveal the use of testosterone for the 2013 season  The current MLB drug policy provides for an 80-game suspension for a first positive test, a 162-game suspension for a second positive test, and a lifetime suspension for a third positive test  In 2009, allegations surfaced against Alex Rodriguez and David Ortiz, and Manny Ramirez received a 50-game suspension after testing positive for banned substances  In early April 2011, Ramirez retired from baseball rather than face a 100-game suspension for his second positive steroid test  He would later unretire, having the suspension dropped to 50 games, and would serve those in 2012 

Media coverage
Television
Several networks televise baseball games, including Fox, ESPN, TBS, and MLB Network  Since 2008, Fox Sports has broadcast MLB games on Fox Saturday Baseball throughout the entire season; Fox previously only broadcast games from May to September  Fox also holds rights to the All-Star Game each season  Fox also alternates League Championship Series broadcasts, broadcasting the American League Championship Series (ALCS) in odd-numbered years and the National League Championship Series (NLCS) in even-numbered years  Fox broadcasts all games of the World Series  ESPN continues to broadcast MLB games as well, beginning with national Opening Day coverage  ESPN broadcasts Sunday Night Baseball and Baseball Tonight  ESPN also has rights to the Home Run Derby at the All-Star Game each July TBS has aired Sunday afternoon regular season games (non-exclusive) nationally, but beginning in 2022 this will be replaced by Tuesday night games  In 2007, TBS began its exclusive rights to any tiebreaker games that determine division or wild card champions  It also airs exclusive coverage of the Division Series round of the playoffs  TBS carries the League Championship Series that are not included under Fox's television agreement; TBS shows the NLCS in odd-numbered years and the ALCS in even-numbered years In January 2009, MLB launched the MLB Network, featuring news and coverage from around the league, and airing 26 live games in the 2009 season  Each team also has local broadcasts for all games not carried by Fox on Saturdays or ESPN on Sunday nights  These games are typically split between a local broadcast television station and a local or regional sports network (RSN), though some teams only air local games through RSNs or through their own team networks  As Canada only contains one team, Sportsnet broadcasts Toronto Blue Jays games nationally  The channel is owned by Rogers Communications, who is also the parent company of the Blue Jays  Sportsnet also televises Fox's Saturday afternoon games, the All-Star Game, playoff games, and the World Series  In April 2011, TSN2 began carrying ESPN Sunday Night Baseball in Canada  TVA Sports airs Blue Jays games in French Several MLB games are broadcast exclusively on Internet television  After a year of exclusive games on Facebook, MLB partnered with YouTube to stream weekly games on the service beginning in the 2019 season, and extending until 2022  In 2022, MLB made a deal with Apple Inc  to launch Friday Night Baseball on its Apple TV+ streaming service, and NBC Sports to broadcast MLB Sunday Leadoff, a package of early Sunday afternoon games on Peacock 

Blackout policy
MLB has several blackout rules  A local broadcaster has priority to televise games of the team in their market over national broadcasters if the game is not exclusive to the national broadcaster  A market that has a local team playing in a non-exclusive game will receive an alternative programming feed on the national broadcaster  MLB's streaming internet video service is also subject to the same blackout rules 

Radio and Internet
ESPN Radio holds national broadcast rights and broadcasts Sunday Night Baseball weekly throughout the season in addition to all playoff games  The rights to the World Series are exclusive to ESPN  In 2021, TUDN Radio picked up Spanish-language rights to MLB games, starting with that year's postseason In addition, each team employs its own announcers, who broadcast during the regular season  Most teams operate regional networks to cover their fan bases; some of these supposedly regional networks (such as the New York Yankees Radio Network) have a national reach with affiliates located across the United States  Major League Baseball has an exclusive rights deal with XM Satellite Radio, which includes the channel MLB Network Radio and live play-by-play of all games  Many teams also maintain a network of stations that broadcast their games in Spanish; as of 2022, the Los Angeles Dodgers are the only team that produces radio broadcasts in a third language, with selected games broadcast in Korean  Both Canadian teams (the Montreal Expos before their move to Washington, DC in 2005, and the Toronto Blue Jays) have produced radio broadcasts in French MLB games are also broadcast live on the internet  All television and radio broadcasts of games are available via subscription to MLB tv at Major League Baseball's website, MLB com, and radio-only broadcasts are also available via subscription to MLB com Gameday Audio  Radio station affiliates are officially forbidden from streaming games through their Internet feeds  Blackout rules are still applied for live television broadcasts, but not radio broadcasts 

International broadcasting
ESPN Deportes televises many MLB games in Spanish throughout Latin America  Wapa 2 airs games in Puerto Rico, including spring training games and most of the World Baseball Classic games involving the team from Puerto Rico  In Brazil, ESPN Brasil has exclusive rights on TV (ESPN and ESPN2) and Internet (WatchESPN) Five in the United Kingdom previously screened MLB games, including the All-Star Game and the postseason games, on Sunday and Wednesday usually starting at 1 a m  BST  Most recently, Johnny Gould and Josh Chetwynd presented MLB on Five on that station  The channel covered baseball beginning on its opening night in 1997, but for financial reasons, the decision was made not to pick up MLB for the 2009 season  BT Sport ESPN show live and recorded games several times a week—it is available with BT Sport and (on a subscriber-basis) Virgin Media in the UK  ESPN America televised many games in the UK and dozens of other countries; in May 2013, ESPN announced that it would shut down the channel on July 31, 2013 In Australia, MLB games are regularly shown on ESPN Australia (subscription) In the Middle East, North Africa and France, MLB games are broadcast on beIN Sports channels In Germany MLB games will be broadcast from 2022 exclusively on Sport1 until 2026 In Hungary, MLB games are broadcast on Sport1 as of 2020 

See also
Passage 11:
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Musa'ed Stadium
Prince Abdul Aziz bin Musa'ed Stadium is a multi-purpose stadium in Ha'il, Saudi Arabia   It is currently used mostly for football matches and is the home stadium of Al-Ta'ee   The stadium has a capacity of 12,250 people 
Passage 12:
Pohang Baseball Stadium
Pohang Baseball Stadium is a baseball stadium in Pohang, South Korea  The stadium is currently being used as a second home of the KBO League team Samsung Lions 
Passage 13:
30 June Stadium
The 30 June Stadium is a stadium used mostly for football matches and also sometimes for athletics located in Cairo  It was built by the Egyptian Air Defense Forces  The stadium is the main venue of the Air Defense Sport Village  The stadium has a capacity of 30,000 and it is one of the venues of the Egyptian Premier League  It is the  home ground of the Egyptian Premier League side Pyramids F C 
In March 2019 it was announced that the stadium will host all bar one of the fixtures of Group C in the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, as well as one Group A and Group D match and one match each in the round of 16, the quarter-finals, and the semi-finals 

Accidents
Twenty-eight football fans died on 8 February 2015 in a confrontation with the police at the gates of Egyptian stadium during a league match between two Cairo clubs, Zamalek SC and ENPPI  Most of the dead were crushed to death and suffocated when the crowd stampeded after police used tear gas to clear the fans trying to force their way into the stadium  Egypt's hardcore fans are notorious for violent behavior at matches, and Egypt has designated some as terrorist groups 

2019 Africa Cup of Nations
The stadium is one of the venues for the 2019  Africa Cup of Nations 
The following games were played at the stadium during the 2019  Africa Cup of Nations:
Context 2: Passage 1:
List of U S  states and territories by elevation
This list includes the topographic elevations of each of the 50 U S  states, the District of Columbia, and the U S  territories The elevation of a geographic area may be stated in several ways  These include:

The maximum elevation of the area (high point);
The minimum elevation of the area (low point);
The arithmetic mean elevation of the area (statistical mean elevation);
The median elevation of the area (statistical 50% elevation); and
The elevation range of the area All topographic elevations are adjusted to the North American Vertical Datum of 1988 (NAVD 88)  All geographic coordinates are adjusted to the World Geodetic System of 1984 (WGS 84)  The mean elevation for each state, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico are accurate to the nearest 100 feet (30 m)  Mean elevation data is not available for the other U S  territories 

Elevations
Minor outlying islands
The highest points in the U S  minor outlying islands, mostly unnamed:

Baker Island high point – 26 feet (8 m)
Howland Island high point – 10 feet (3 m)
Jarvis Island high point – 23 feet (7 m)
Johnston Atoll, Sand Island high point – 33 feet (10 m)
Kingman Reef high point – less than 7 feet (2 m)
Midway Atoll, Sand Island high point – 50 feet (15 m) – The highest point of the U S  minor outlying islands in the Pacific Ocean 
Navassa Island high point – 280 feet (85 m) – The highest point of all the U S  minor outlying islands 
Palmyra Atoll high point – 10 feet (3 m)
Wake Island high point – 26 feet (8 m)

Gallery
See also
Highpointing
List of elevation extremes by country
List of elevation extremes by region
Lists of highest points
List of highest U S  county high points
List of mountain peaks of the United States
List of the highest major summits of the United States
List of the most prominent summits of the United States
List of the most isolated major summits of the United States
List of highest counties in the United States
List of highest United States cities by state

Notes
Passage 2:
Fort Davis, Texas
Fort Davis is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Jeff Davis County, Texas, United States  The population was 1,201 at the 2010 census, up from 1,050 at the 2000 census  It is the county seat of Jeff Davis County 

History
It was the site of Fort Davis, established in 1854 on the San Antonio–El Paso Road through west Texas and named after Jefferson Davis, who was then the Secretary of War under President Franklin Pierce  It was reestablished in 1867 following the civil war 

Geography
Fort Davis is located in southeastern Jeff Davis County at the southeast foot of the Davis Mountains  Texas State Highway 17 (State Street) passes through the center of town, leading northeast 38 miles (61 km) to Interstate 10 at Balmorhea and southwest 21 miles (34 km) to Marfa  Texas State Highway 118 joins Highway 17 through the center of Fort Davis, but leads northwest through the Davis Mountains 52 miles (84 km) to I-10 and southeast 23 miles (37 km) to Alpine 
According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 10 1 square miles (26 1 km2), all land Fort Davis has the highest elevation above sea level of any county seat in Texas; the elevation is 4,900 feet (1,500 m) 

Climate
Fort Davis experiences a semi-arid climate (Köppen BSk) with cool, dry winters and hot, wet summers  There is a large degree of diurnal temperature variation due to the high elevation of the area 

Demographics
2020 census
As of the 2020 United States census, there were 1,024 people, 415 households, and 317 families residing in the CDP 

2000 census
As of the census of 2000,  1,050 people, 415 households, and 298 families resided in the CDP  The population density was 188 2 inhabitants per square mile (72 7/km2)  The 525 housing units averaged 94 1 per square mile (36 3/km2)  The racial makeup of the CDP was 88 29% White, 0 19% African American, 0 48% Native American, 7 62% from other races, and 3 43% from two or more races  Hispanics or Latinos of any race were 49 33% of the population 
Of the 415 households, 32 0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 57 6% were married couples living together, 10 6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 28 0% were not families  About 24 3% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9 9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older  The average household size was 2 53 and the average family size was 3 02 
In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 24 7% under the age of 18, 7 4% from 18 to 24, 26 9% from 25 to 44, 25 4% from 45 to 64, and 15 6% who were 65 years of age or older  The median age was 39 years  For every 100 females, there were 102 3 males  For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 97 3 males 
The median income for a household in the CDP was $25,882, and  for a family was $27,955  Males had a median income of $22,500 versus $20,000 for females  The per capita income for the CDP was $14,249  About 20 7% of families and 21 6% of the population were below the poverty line, including 26 3% of those under age 18 and 26 0% of those age 65 or over 

Arts and culture
Points of interest
Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and Botanical Gardens at the Chihuahuan Desert Research Institute
Fort Davis National Historic Site
The McDonald Observatory of the University of Texas at Austin
Fort Davis is home to one of 10 dishes comprising the Very Long Baseline Array
Davis Mountains State Park

Education
Fort Davis is served by the Fort Davis Independent School District 

Dirks-Anderson Elementary School
Fort Davis High SchoolAll of Jeff Davis County is zoned to Odessa College 

Gallery
Passage 3:
Dell
Dell Inc  is an American based technology company  It develops, sells, repairs, and supports computers and related products and services  Dell is owned by its parent company, Dell Technologies Dell sells personal computers (PCs), servers, data storage devices, network switches, software, computer peripherals, HDTVs, cameras, printers, and electronics built by other manufacturers  The company is known for how it manages its supply chain and electronic commerce  This includes Dell selling directly to customers and delivering PCs that the customer wants  Dell was a pure hardware vendor until 2009 when it acquired Perot Systems   Dell then entered the market for IT services  The company has expanded storage and networking systems  It is now expanding from offering computers only to delivering a range of technology for enterprise customers Dell is a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: DELL), as well as a component of the NASDAQ-100 and S&P 500  It is the third-largest personal computer vendor as of January 2021  Dell is ranked 31st on the Fortune 500 list in 2022, up from 76th in 2021  It is also the sixth-largest company in Texas by total revenue, according to Fortune magazine  It is the second-largest non-oil company in Texas In 2015, Dell acquired the enterprise technology firm EMC Corporation  Dell and EMC became divisions of Dell Technologies  Dell EMC sells data storage, information security, virtualization, analytics, and cloud computing 

History
Founding and start-up
Michael Dell founded Dell Computer Corporation, doing business as PC's Limited in 1984 while a student at the University of Texas at Austin, operating from Michael Dell's off-campus dormitory room at Dobie Center  The start-up aimed to sell IBM PC compatible computers built from stock components  Michael Dell started trading in the belief that, by selling personal computer systems directly to customers, PC's Limited could better understand customers' needs and provide the most effective computing solutions to meet those needs  Dell dropped out of college upon completion of his freshman year at the University of Texas in order to focus full-time on his fledgling business, after getting about $1,000 in expansion-capital from his family  As of April 2021, Dell's net worth was estimated to be over $50 billion 
In 1985, the company produced the first computer of its own design, the "Turbo PC", selling for US$795 and containing an Intel 8088-compatible processor capable of running at a maximum speed of 8 MHz  PC's Limited advertised the systems in national computer magazines for sale directly to consumers, and custom assembled each ordered unit according to a selection of options  This offered buyers prices lower than those of retail brands, but with greater convenience than assembling the components themselves  Pc's Limited was not the first company to use this business model, but they became one of the first to succeed with it  The company grossed more than $73 million in its first year of trading 
The company dropped the PC's Limited name in 1987 to become Dell Computer Corporation and began expanding globally  The reasoning was that this new company name better reflected its presence in the business market, and also resolved issues with the use of "Limited" in a company name in certain countries   The company set up its first international operations in Britain; 11 more followed within the next four years  In June 1988, Dell Computer's market capitalization grew by $30 million to $80 million from its June 22 initial public offering of 3 5 million shares at $8 50 a share  In 1989, Dell Computer set up its first on-site service programs in order to compensate for the lack of local retailers prepared to act as service centers 

Growth in the 1990s and early 2000s
In 1990, Dell Computer tried selling its products indirectly through warehouse clubs and computer superstores, but met with little success, and the company re-focused on its more successful direct-to-consumer sales model  In 1992, Fortune included Dell Computer Corporation in its list of the world's 500 largest companies, making Michael Dell the youngest CEO of a Fortune 500 company at that time 
In 1993, to complement its own direct sales channel, Dell planned to sell PCs at big-box retail outlets such as Wal-Mart, which would have brought in an additional $125 million in annual revenue  Bain consultant Kevin Rollins persuaded Michael Dell to pull out of these deals, believing they would be money losers in the long run  Margins at retail were thin at best and Dell left the reseller channel in 1994  Rollins would soon join Dell full-time and eventually become the company president and CEO 
Originally, Dell did not emphasize the consumer market, due to the higher costs and low profit margins in selling to individuals and households; this changed when the company's Internet site took off in 1996 and 1997  While the industry's average selling price to individuals was going down, Dell's was going up, as second- and third-time computer buyers who wanted powerful computers with multiple features and did not need much technical support were choosing Dell  Dell found an opportunity among PC-savvy individuals who liked the convenience of buying direct, customizing their PC to their means, and having it delivered in days  In early 1997, Dell created an internal sales and marketing group dedicated to serving the home market and introduced a product line designed especially for individual users From 1997 to 2004, Dell steadily grew and it gained market share from competitors even during industry slumps  During the same period, rival PC vendors such as Compaq, Gateway, IBM, Packard Bell, and AST Research struggled and eventually left the market or were bought out  Dell surpassed Compaq to become the largest PC manufacturer in 1999  Operating costs made up only 10 percent of Dell's $35 billion in revenue in 2002, compared with 21 percent of revenue at Hewlett-Packard, 25 percent at Gateway, and 46 percent at Cisco  In 2002, when Compaq merged with Hewlett-Packard (the fourth-place PC maker), the newly combined Hewlett-Packard took the top spot for a time but struggled and Dell soon regained its lead  Dell grew the fastest in the early 2000s In 2002, Dell expanded its product line to include televisions, handhelds, digital audio players, and printers  Chairman and CEO Michael Dell had repeatedly blocked President and COO Kevin Rollins's attempt to lessen the company's heavy dependency on PCs, which Rollins wanted to fix by acquiring EMC Corporation; a move that would eventually occur over 12 years later In 2003, at the annual company meeting, the stockholders approved changing the company name to "Dell Inc " to recognize the company's expansion beyond computers In 2004, the company announced that it would build a new assembly-plant near Winston-Salem, North Carolina; the city and county provided Dell with $37 2 million in incentive packages; the state provided approximately $250 million in incentives and tax breaks  In July, Michael Dell stepped aside as chief executive officer while retaining his position as chairman of the board  Kevin Rollins, who had held a number of executive posts at Dell, became the new CEO  Despite no longer holding the CEO title, Dell essentially acted as a de facto co-CEO with Rollins Under Rollins, Dell purchased the computer hardware manufacturer Alienware in 2006  Dell Inc 's plan anticipated Alienware continuing to operate independently under its existing management  Alienware expected to benefit from Dell's efficient manufacturing system 

Key events
In 2005, while earnings and sales continued to rise, sales growth slowed considerably, and the company stock lost 25% of its value that year  By June 2006, the stock traded around US$25 which was 40% down from July 2005—the high-water mark of the company in the post-dotcom era  By June 2021, the stock had reached an all-time high of over US$100 per share, reflecting the company's successful transition to a technology solutions provider that helps customers navigate digital transformation The slowing sales growth has been attributed to the maturing PC market, which constituted 66% of Dell's sales, and analysts suggested that Dell needed to make inroads into non-PC business segments such as storage, services, and servers  Dell's price advantage was tied to its ultra-lean manufacturing for desktop PCs, but this became less important as savings became harder to find inside the company's supply chain, and as competitors such as Hewlett-Packard and Acer made their PC manufacturing operations more efficient to match Dell, weakening Dell's traditional price differentiation  Throughout the entire PC industry, declines in prices along with commensurate increases in performance meant that Dell had fewer opportunities to upsell to their customers  As a result, the company was selling a greater proportion of inexpensive PCs than before, which eroded profit margins  The laptop segment had become the fastest-growing of the PC market, but Dell produced low-cost notebooks in China like other PC manufacturers which eliminated Dell's manufacturing cost advantages, plus Dell's reliance on Internet sales meant that it missed out on growing notebook sales in big box stores [4] CNET has suggested that Dell was getting trapped in the increasing commoditization of high volume low margin computers, which prevented it from offering more exciting devices that consumers demanded Despite plans of expanding into other global regions and product segments, Dell was heavily dependent on US corporate PC market, as desktop PCs sold to both commercial and corporate customers accounted for 32 percent of its revenue, 85 percent of its revenue comes from businesses, and 64 percent of its revenue comes from North and South America, according to its 2006 third-quarter results  US shipments of desktop PCs were shrinking, and the corporate PC market, which purchases PCs in upgrade cycles, had largely decided to take a break from buying new systems  The last cycle started around 2002, three or so years after companies started buying PCs ahead of the perceived Y2K problems, and corporate clients were not expected to upgrade again until extensive testing of Microsoft's Windows Vista (expected in early 2007), putting the next upgrade cycle around 2008  Heavily dependent on PCs, Dell had to slash prices to boost sales volumes, while demanding deep cuts from suppliers Dell had long stuck by its direct sales model  Consumers had become the main drivers of PC sales in recent years, yet there had a decline in consumers purchasing PCs through the Web or on the phone, as increasing numbers were visiting consumer electronics retail stores to try out the devices first  Dell's rivals in the PC industry, HP, Gateway and Acer, had a long retail presence and so were well poised to take advantage of the consumer shift  The lack of a retail presence stymied Dell's attempts to offer consumer electronics such as flat-panel TVs and MP3 players  Dell responded by experimenting with mall kiosks, plus quasi-retail stores in Texas and New York Dell had a reputation as a company that relied upon supply chain efficiencies to sell established technologies at low prices, instead of being an innovator  By the mid-2000s many analysts were looking to innovating companies as the next source of growth in the technology sector  Dell's low spending on R&D relative to its revenue (compared to IBM, Hewlett-Packard, and Apple Inc )—which worked well in the commoditized PC market—prevented it from making inroads into more lucrative segments, such as MP3 players and later mobile devices  Increasing spending on R&D would have cut into the operating margins that the company emphasized  Dell had done well with a horizontal organization that focused on PCs when the computing industry moved to horizontal mix-and-match layers in the 1980s, but by the mid-2000 the industry shifted to vertically integrated stacks to deliver an end-to-end IT product, and Dell lagged far behind competitors like Hewlett-Packard and Oracle Dell's reputation for poor customer service, which was exacerbated as it moved call centers offshore and as its growth outstripped its technical support infrastructure, came under increasing scrutiny on the Web  The original Dell model was known for high customer satisfaction when PCs sold for thousands of dollars but by the 2000s, the company could not justify that level of service when computers in the same line-up sold for hundreds of dollars  Rollins responded by shifting Dick Hunter from the head of manufacturing to head of customer service  Hunter, who noted that Dell's DNA of cost-cutting "got in the way," aimed to reduce call transfer times and have call center representatives resolve inquiries in one call  By 2006, Dell had spent $100 million in just a few months to improve on this and rolled out DellConnect to answer customer inquiries more quickly  In July 2006, the company started its Direct2Dell blog, and then in February 2007, Michael Dell launched IdeaStorm com, asking customers for advice including selling Linux computers and reducing the promotional "bloatware" on PCs  These initiatives did manage to cut the negative blog posts from 49% to 22%, as well as reduce the "Dell Hell" prominent on Internet search engines There was also criticism that Dell used faulty components for its PCs, particularly the 11 8 million OptiPlex desktop computers sold to businesses and governments from May 2003 to July 2005 that suffered from faulty capacitors  A battery recall in August 2006, as a result of a Dell laptop catching fire, caused much negative attention for the company though later, Sony was found responsible for the manufacturing of the batteries, however a Sony spokesman said the problem concerned the combination of the battery with a charger, which was specific to Dell 2006 marked the first year that Dell's growth was slower than the PC industry as a whole  By the fourth quarter of 2006, Dell lost its title of the largest PC manufacturer to Hewlett Packard whose Personal Systems Group was invigorated thanks to a restructuring initiated by their CEO Mark Hurd 

SEC investigation
In August 2005, Dell became the subject of an informal investigation by the United States SEC  In 2006, the company disclosed that the US Attorney for the Southern District of New York had subpoenaed documents related to the company's financial reporting dating back to 2002  The company delayed filing financial reports for the third and fourth fiscal quarter of 2006, and several class-action lawsuits were filed   Dell Inc's failure to file its quarterly earnings report could have subjected the company to de-listing from the NASDAQ, but the exchange granted Dell a waiver, allowing the stock to trade normally  In August 2007, the Company announced that it would restate its earnings for fiscal years 2003 through 2006 and the first quarter of 2007 after an internal audit found that certain employees had changed corporate account balances to meet quarterly financial targets  In July 2010, the SEC announced charges against several senior Dell executives, including Dell Chairman and CEO Michael Dell, former CEO Kevin Rollins, and former CFO James Schneider, "with failing to disclose material information to investors and using fraudulent accounting to make it falsely appear that the company was consistently meeting Wall Street earnings targets and reducing its operating expenses " Dell, inc  was fined $100 million, with Michael Dell personally fined $4 million 

Michael Dell resumes CEO role
After four out of five quarterly earnings reports were below expectations, Rollins resigned as president and CEO on January 31, 2007, and founder Michael Dell assumed the role of CEO again On March 1, 2007, the company issued a preliminary quarterly earnings report showing gross sales of $14 4 billion, down 5% year-over-year, and net income of $687 million (30 cents per share), down 33%  Net earnings would have declined even more if not for the effects of eliminated employee bonuses, which accounted for six cents per share  NASDAQ extended the company's deadline for filing financials to May 4 

Dell 2 0 and downsizing
Dell announced a change campaign called "Dell 2 0," reducing the number of employees and diversifying the company's products  While chairman of the board after relinquishing his CEO position, Michael Dell still had significant input in the company during Rollins' years as CEO  With the return of Michael Dell as CEO, the company saw changes in operations, the exodus of many senior vice-presidents and new personnel brought in from outside the company  Michael Dell announced a number of initiatives and plans (part of the "Dell 2 0" initiative) to improve the company's financial performance  These include elimination of 2006 bonuses for employees with some discretionary awards, reduction in the number of managers reporting directly to Michael Dell from 20 to 12, and reduction of "bureaucracy"  Jim Schneider retired as CFO and was replaced by Donald Carty, as the company came under an SEC probe for its accounting practices On April 23, 2008, Dell announced the closure of one of its biggest Canadian call-centers in Kanata, Ontario, terminating approximately 1100 employees, with 500 of those redundancies effective on the spot, and with the official closure of the center scheduled for the summer  The call-center had opened in 2006 after the city of Ottawa won a bid to host it  Less than a year later, Dell planned to double its workforce to nearly 3,000 workers add a new building  These plans were reversed, due to a high Canadian dollar that made the Ottawa staff relatively expensive, and also as part of Dell's turnaround, which involved moving these call-center jobs offshore to cut costs 
 
The company had also announced the shutdown of its Edmonton, Alberta, office, losing 900 jobs  In total, Dell announced the ending of about 8,800 jobs in 2007–2008 — 10% of its workforce By the late 2000s, Dell's "configure to order" approach of manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications from its US facilities was no longer as efficient or competitive with high-volume Asian contract manufacturers as PCs became powerful low-cost commodities  Dell closed plants that produced desktop computers for the North American market, including the Mort Topfer Manufacturing Center in Austin, Texas (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee (opened in 1999) in 2008 and early 2009, respectively  The desktop production plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, received US$280 million in incentives from the state and opened in 2005, but ceased operations in November 2010  Dell's contract with the state required them to repay the incentives for failing to meet the conditions, and they sold the North Carolina plant to Herbalife  Much work was transferred to manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's own factories overseas  On January 8, 2009, Dell announced the closure of its manufacturing plant in Limerick, Ireland, with the loss of 1,900 jobs and the transfer of production to its plant in Łodź in Poland 

Attempts at diversification
The release of Apple's iPad tablet computer had a negative impact on Dell and other major PC vendors, as consumers switched away from desktop and laptop PCs  Dell's own mobility division has not managed success with developing smartphones or tablets, whether running Windows or Google Android  The Dell Streak was a failure commercially and critically due to its outdated OS, numerous bugs, and low resolution screen  InfoWorld suggested that Dell and other OEMs saw tablets as a short-term, low-investment opportunity running Google Android, an approach that neglected user interface and failed to gain long term market traction with consumers  Dell has responded by pushing higher-end PCs, such as the XPS line of notebooks, which do not compete with the Apple iPad and Kindle Fire tablets  The growing popularity of smartphones and tablet computers instead of PCs drove Dell's consumer segment to an operating loss in Q3 2012  In December 2012, Dell suffered its first decline in holiday sales in five years, despite the introduction of Windows 8 In the shrinking PC industry, Dell continued to lose market share, as it dropped below Lenovo in 2011 to fall to number three in the world  Dell and fellow American contemporary Hewlett Packard came under pressure from Asian PC manufacturers Lenovo, Asus, and Acer, all of which had lower production costs and were willing to accept lower profit margins  In addition, while the Asian PC vendors had been improving their quality and design—for instance, Lenovo's ThinkPad series was winning corporate customers away from Dell's laptops—Dell's customer service and reputation had been slipping  Dell remained the second-most profitable PC vendor, as it took 13 percent of operating profits in the PC industry during Q4 2012, behind Apple's Mac that took 45 percent, seven percent at Hewlett Packard, six percent at Lenovo and Asus, and one percent for Acer Dell attempted to offset its declining PC business, which still accounted for half of its revenue and generates steady cash flow, by expanding into the enterprise market with servers, networking, software, and services  It avoided many of the acquisition write-downs and management turnover that plagued its chief rival Hewlett Packard  Despite spending $13 billion on acquisitions to diversify its portfolio beyond hardware, the company was unable to convince the market that it could thrive or made the transformation in the post-PC world, as it suffered continued declines in revenue and share price  Dell's market share in the corporate segment was previously a "moat" against rivals but this has no longer been the case as sales and profits have fallen precipitously 

2013 buyout
After several weeks of rumors, which started around January 11, 2013, Dell announced on February 5, 2013, that it had struck a $24 4 billion leveraged buyout deal, that would have delisted its shares from the NASDAQ and Hong Kong Stock Exchange and taken it private  Reuters reported that Michael Dell and Silver Lake Partners, aided by a $2 billion loan from Microsoft, would acquire the public shares at $13 65 apiece  The $24 4 billion buyout was projected to be the largest leveraged buyout backed by private equity since the 2007 financial crisis  It is also the largest technology buyout ever, surpassing the 2006 buyout of Freescale Semiconductor for $17 5 billion Michael Dell said of the February offer "I believe this transaction will open an exciting new chapter for Dell, our customers and team members"  Dell rival Lenovo responded to the buyout, saying, "the financial actions of some of our traditional competitors will not substantially change our outlook "In March 2013, the Blackstone Group and Carl Icahn expressed interest in purchasing Dell  In April 2013, Blackstone withdrew their offer, citing deteriorating business  Other private equity firms such as KKR & Co  and TPG Capital declined to submit alternative bids for Dell, citing the uncertain market for personal computers and competitive pressures, so the "wide-open bidding war" never materialized  Analysts said that the biggest challenge facing Silver Lake would be to find an "exit strategy" to profit from its investment, which would be when the company would hold an IPO to go public again, and one warned "But even if you can get a $25bn enterprise value for Dell, it will take years to get out "In May 2013, Michael Dell joined his board in voting for the offer  The following August he reached a deal with the special committee on the board for $13 88 per share, a raised price of $13 75 plus a special dividend of 13 cents, as well as a change to the voting rules  The $13 88 cash offer (plus a $ 08 per share dividend for the third fiscal quarter) was accepted on September 12 and closed on October 30, 2013, ending Dell's 25-year run as a publicly-traded company 
After the buyout, the newly private Dell offered a Voluntary Separation Program that they expected to reduce their workforce by up to seven percent  The reception to the program so exceeded the expectations that Dell may be forced to hire new staff to make up for the losses 

Recent history
On November 19, 2015, Dell, alongside ARM Holdings, Cisco Systems, Intel, Microsoft, and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium, to promote interests and development in fog computing 

Acquisition of EMC
On October 12, 2015, Dell Inc  announced its intent to acquire EMC Corporation in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $67 billion, which has been considered the largest-ever acquisition in the technology sector  As part of the acquisition, Dell would take over EMC's 81% stake in the cloud-computing and virtualization company VMWare  This would combine Dell's enterprise server, personal computer, and mobile businesses with EMC's enterprise storage business in a significant Vertical merger of IT giants  Dell would pay $24 05 per share of EMC, and $9 05 per share of tracking stock in VMware The announcement came two years after Dell Inc  returned to private ownership, claiming that it faced bleak prospects and would need several years out of the public eye to rebuild its business  It was thought that the company's value had roughly doubled since then  EMC was being pressured by Elliott Management, a hedge fund holding 2 2% of EMC's stock, to reorganize their unusual "Federation" structure, in which EMC's divisions were effectively being run as independent companies  Elliott argued this structure deeply undervalued EMC's core "EMC II" data storage business, and that increasing competition between EMC II and VMware products was confusing the market and hindering both companies  The Wall Street Journal estimated that in 2014 Dell had revenue of $27 3 billion from personal computers and $8 9 billion from servers, while EMC had $16 5 billion from EMC II, $1 billion from RSA Security, $6 billion from VMware, and $230 million from Pivotal Software  EMC owns around 80 percent of the stock of VMware  The proposed acquisition will maintain VMware as a separate company, held via a new tracking stock, while the other parts of EMC will be rolled into Dell  Once the acquisition closes Dell will again publish quarterly financial results, having ceased these on going private in 2013 The combined business was expected to address the markets for scale-out architecture, converged infrastructure and private cloud computing, playing to the strengths of both EMC and Dell  Commentators have questioned the deal, with FBR Capital Markets saying that though it makes a "ton of sense" for Dell, it's a "nightmare scenario that would lack strategic synergies" for EMC  Fortune said there was a lot for Dell to like in EMC's portfolio, but "does it all add up enough to justify tens of billions of dollars for the entire package? Probably not " The Register reported the view of William Blair & Company that the merger would "blow up the current IT chess board", forcing other IT infrastructure vendors to restructure to achieve scale and vertical integration  The value of VMware stock fell 10% after the announcement, valuing the deal at around $63–64bn rather than the $67bn originally reported  Key investors backing the deal besides Dell were Singapore's Temasek Holdings and Silver Lake Partners On September 7, 2016, Dell completed the merger with EMC, which involved the issuance of $45 9 billion in debt and $4 4 billion of common stock  At the time, some analysts claimed that Dell's acquisition of the former Iomega could harm the LenovoEMC partnership In July 2018, Dell announced intentions to become a publicly traded company again by paying $21 7 billion in both cash and stock to buy back shares from its stake in VMware, offering shareholders roughly 60 cents on the dollar as part of the deal  In November, Carl Icahn (9 3% owner of Dell) sued the company over plans to go public  As a result of pressure from Icahn and other activist investors, Dell renegotiated the deal, ultimately offering shareholders about 80% of market value  As part of this deal, Dell once again became a public company, with the original Dell computer business and Dell EMC operating under the newly created parent, Dell Technologies Post-acquisition, Dell was re-organized with a new parent company, Dell Technologies; Dell's consumer and workstation businesses are internally referred to as the Dell Client Solutions Group, and is one of the company's three main business divisions alongside Dell EMC and VMware In January 2021, Dell reported $94 billion in sales and $13 billion operating cash flow during 2020 

Dell and AMD
When Dell acquired Alienware early in 2006, some Alienware systems had AMD chips  On August 17, 2006, a Dell press release stated that starting in September, Dell Dimension desktop computers would have AMD processors and that later in the year Dell would release a two-socket, quad-processor server using AMD Opteron chips, moving away from Dell's tradition of only offering Intel processors in Dell PCs 
CNet's News com on August 17, 2006, cited Dell's CEO Kevin Rollins as attributing the move to AMD processors to lower costs and to AMD technology  AMD's senior VP in commercial business, Marty Seyer, stated: "Dell's wider embrace of AMD processor-based offerings is a win for Dell, for the industry and most importantly for Dell customers "
On October 23, 2006, Dell announced new AMD-based servers — the PowerEdge 6950 and the PowerEdge SC1435 
On November 1, 2006, Dell's website began offering notebooks based on AMD processors (the Inspiron 1501 with a 15 4-inch (390 mm) display) with the choice of a single-core MK-36 processor, dual-core Turion X2 chips or Mobile Sempron In 2017, Dell released the AlienWare 17  The model was primarily based on NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 systems 

Dell and desktop Linux
In 1998, Ralph Nader asked Dell (and five other major OEMs) to offer alternate operating systems to Microsoft Windows, specifically including Linux, for which "there is clearly a growing interest"  Possibly coincidentally, Dell started offering Linux notebook systems that "cost no more than their Windows 98 counterparts" in 2000, and soon expanded, with Dell becoming "the first major manufacturer to offer Linux across its full product line"  However, by early 2001 Dell had "disbanded its Linux business unit "On February 26, 2007, Dell announced that it had commenced a program to sell and distribute a range of computers with pre-installed Linux distributions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows  Dell indicated that Novell's SUSE Linux would appear first  However, the next day, Dell announced that its previous announcement related to certifying the hardware as ready to work with Novell SUSE Linux and that it (Dell) had no plans to sell systems pre-installed with Linux in the near future  On March 28, 2007, Dell announced that it would begin shipping some desktops and laptops with Linux pre-installed, although it did not specify which distribution of Linux or which hardware would lead  On April 18, a report appeared suggesting that Michael Dell used Ubuntu on one of his home systems  On May 1, 2007, Dell announced it would ship the Ubuntu Linux distribution  On May 24, 2007, Dell started selling models with Ubuntu Linux 7 04 pre-installed: a laptop, a budget computer, and a high-end PC On June 27, 2007, Dell announced on its Direct2Dell blog that it planned to offer more pre-loaded systems (the new Dell Inspiron desktops and laptops)  After the IdeaStorm site supported extending the bundles beyond the US market, Dell later announced more international marketing  On August 7, 2007, Dell officially announced that it would offer one notebook and one desktop in the UK, France and Germany with Ubuntu "pre-installed"  At LinuxWorld 2007 Dell announced plans to provide Novell's SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop on selected models in China, "factory-installed"  On November 30, 2007, Dell reported shipping 40,000 Ubuntu PCs  On January 24, 2008, Dell in Germany, Spain, France, and the United Kingdom launched a second laptop, an XPS M1330 with Ubuntu 7 10, for 849 euro or GBP 599 upwards  On February 18, 2008, Dell announced that the Inspiron 1525 would have Ubuntu as an optional operating system  On February 22, 2008, Dell announced plans to sell Ubuntu in Canada and in Latin America From September 16, 2008, Dell has shipped both Dell Ubuntu Netbook Remix and Windows XP Home versions of the Inspiron Mini 9 and the Inspiron Mini 12  As of November 2009 Dell shipped the Inspiron Mini laptops with Ubuntu version 8 04 As of 2021, Dell continues to offer select laptops and workstations with Ubuntu Linux pre-installed, under the "Developer Edition" moniker 

List of Dell marketing slogans
Be direct (1998-2001)
Easy as Dell (2001-2004)
Get more out of now (2004–2005)
It's a Dell (2005-2006)
Dell  Purely You (2006–2007)
Yours is Here (2007–2011)
The power to do more (2011–present)

Senior leadership
List of chairmen
Michael Dell (1984– )

List of chief executives
Michael Dell (1984–2004)
Kevin Rollins (2004–2007)
Michael Dell (2007–present); second term

Acquisitions
Dell facilities
Dell's headquarters is located in Round Rock, Texas  As of 2013 the company employed about 14,000 people in central Texas and was the region's largest private employer, which has 2,100,000 square feet (200,000 m2) of space  As of 1999 almost half of the general fund of the city of Round Rock originated from sales taxes generated from the Dell headquarters Dell previously had its headquarters in the Arboretum complex in northern Austin, Texas  In 1989 Dell occupied 127,000 square feet (11,800 m2) in the Arboretum complex  In 1990, Dell had 1,200 employees in its headquarters  In 1993, Dell submitted a document to Round Rock officials, titled "Dell Computer Corporate Headquarters, Round Rock, Texas, May 1993 Schematic Design " Despite the filing, during that year the company said that it was not going to move its headquarters  In 1994, Dell announced that it was moving most of its employees out of the Arboretum, but that it was going to continue to occupy the top floor of the Arboretum and that the company's official headquarters address would continue to be the Arboretum  The top floor continued to hold Dell's board room, demonstration center, and visitor meeting room  Less than one month prior to August 29, 1994, Dell moved 1,100 customer support and telephone sales employees to Round Rock  Dell's lease in the Arboretum had been scheduled to expire in 1994 

By 1996, Dell was moving its headquarters to Round Rock  As of January 1996, 3,500 people still worked at the current Dell headquarters  One building of the Round Rock headquarters, Round Rock 3, had space for 6,400 employees and was scheduled to be completed in November 1996  In 1998 Dell announced that it was going to add two buildings to its Round Rock complex, adding 1,600,000 square feet (150,000 m2) of office space to the complex In 2000, Dell announced that it would lease 80,000 square feet (7,400 m2) of space in the Las Cimas office complex in unincorporated Travis County, Texas, between Austin and West Lake Hills, to house the company's executive offices and corporate headquarters  100 senior executives were scheduled to work in the building by the end of 2000  In January 2001, the company leased the space in Las Cimas 2, located along Loop 360  Las Cimas 2 housed Dell's executives, the investment operations, and some corporate functions  Dell also had an option for 138,000 square feet (12,800 m2) of space in Las Cimas 3  After a slowdown in business required reducing employees and production capacity, Dell decided to sublease its offices in two buildings in the Las Cimas office complex  In 2002 Dell announced that it planned to sublease its space to another tenant; the company planned to move its headquarters back to Round Rock once a tenant was secured  By 2003, Dell moved its headquarters back to Round Rock  It leased all of Las Cimas I and II, with a total of 312,000 square feet (29,000 m2), for about a seven-year period after 2003  By that year roughly 100,000 square feet (9,300 m2) of that space was absorbed by new subtenants In 2008, Dell switched the power sources of the Round Rock headquarters to more environmentally friendly ones, with 60% of the total power coming from TXU Energy wind farms and 40% coming from the Austin Community Landfill gas-to-energy plant operated by Waste Management, Inc Dell facilities in the United States are located in Austin, Texas; Nashua, New Hampshire; Nashville, Tennessee; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Peoria, Illinois; Hillsboro, Oregon (Portland area); Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Eden Prairie, Minnesota (Dell Compellent); Bowling Green, Kentucky; Lincoln, Nebraska; and Miami, Florida  Facilities located abroad include Penang, Malaysia; Xiamen, China; Bracknell, UK; Manila, Philippines Chennai, India; Hyderabad, India; Noida, India; Hortolândia and Porto Alegre, Brazil; Bratislava, Slovakia; Łódź, Poland; Panama City, Panama; Dublin and Limerick, Ireland; Casablanca, Morocco and Montpellier, France 
The US and India are the only countries that have all Dell's business functions and provide support globally: research and development, manufacturing, finance, analysis, and customer care 

Manufacturing
From its early beginnings, Dell operated as a pioneer in the "configure to order" approach to manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications  In contrast, most PC manufacturers in those times delivered large orders to intermediaries on a quarterly basis To minimize the delay between purchase and delivery, Dell has a general policy of manufacturing its products close to its customers  This also allows for implementing a just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing approach, which minimizes inventory costs  Low inventory is another signature of the Dell business model—a critical consideration in an industry where components depreciate very rapidly Dell's manufacturing process covers assembly, software installation, functional testing (including "burn-in"), and quality control  Throughout most of the company's history, Dell manufactured desktop machines in-house and contracted out the manufacturing of base notebooks for configuration in-house  The company's approach has changed, as cited in the 2006 Annual Report, which states, "We are continuing to expand our use of original design manufacturing partnerships and manufacturing outsourcing relationships " The Wall Street Journal reported in September 2008 that "Dell has approached contract computer manufacturers with offers to sell" their plants  By the late 2000s, Dell's "configure to order" approach of manufacturing—delivering individual PCs configured to customer specifications from its US facilities was no longer as efficient or competitive with high-volume Asian contract manufacturers as PCs became powerful low-cost commodities Assembly of desktop computers for the North American market formerly took place at Dell plants in Austin, Texas, (original location) and Lebanon, Tennessee, (opened in 1999), which were closed in 2008 and early 2009, respectively  The plant in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, opened in 2005 but ceased operations in November 2010  Most of the work that used to take place in Dell's US plants was transferred to contract manufacturers in Asia and Mexico, or some of Dell's own factories overseas  The Miami, Florida, facility of its Alienware subsidiary remains in operation, while Dell continues to produce its servers (its most profitable products) in Austin, Texas Dell assembled computers for the EMEA market at the Limerick facility in the Republic of Ireland, and once employed about 4,500 people in that country  Dell began manufacturing in Limerick in 1991 and went on to become Ireland's largest exporter of goods and its second-largest company and foreign investor  On January 8, 2009, Dell announced that it would move all Dell manufacturing in Limerick to Dell's new plant in the Polish city of Łódź by January 2010  European Union officials said they would investigate a €52 7million aid package the Polish government used to attract Dell away from Ireland  European Manufacturing Facility 1 (EMF1, opened in 1990) and EMF3 form part of the Raheen Industrial Estate near Limerick  EMF2 (previously a Wang facility, later occupied by Flextronics, situated in Castletroy) closed in 2002, and Dell Inc  has consolidated production into EMF3 (EMF1 now contains only offices)  Subsidies from the Polish government did keep Dell for a long time  After ending assembly in the Limerick plant the Cherrywood Technology Campus in Dublin was the largest Dell office in the republic with over 1200 people in sales (mainly UK & Ireland), support (enterprise support for EMEA) and research and development for cloud computing, but no more manufacturing except Dell's Alienware subsidiary, which manufactures PCs in an Athlone, Ireland, plant  Whether this facility will remain in Ireland is not certain  Dell started production at EMF4 in Łódź, Poland, in late 2007 Dell moved desktop, notebook and PowerEdge server manufacturing for the South American market from the Eldorado do Sul plant opened in 1999, to a new plant in Hortolândia, Brazil, in 2007 

Products
Scope and brands
The corporation markets specific brand names to different market segments 
Its Business/Corporate class includes:

OptiPlex (office desktop computer systems)
Dimension (home desktop computer systems)
Vostro (office/small business desktop and notebook systems)
n Series (desktop and notebook computers shipped with Linux or FreeDOS installed)
Latitude (business-focused notebooks)
Precision (workstation systems and high-performance "Mobile Workstation" notebooks),
PowerEdge (business servers)
PowerVault (direct-attach and network-attached storage)
Force10 (network switches)
PowerConnect (network switches)
Dell Compellent (storage area networks)
EqualLogic (enterprise class iSCSI SANs)
Dell EMR (electronic medical records)Dell's Home Office/Consumer class includes:

Inspiron (budget desktop and notebook computers)
XPS (high-end desktop and notebook computers)
G Series (high/medium-performance gaming laptops)
Alienware (high-performance gaming systems)
Venue (Tablets Android / Windows)Dell's Peripherals class includes USB keydrives, LCD televisions, and printers; Dell monitors includes LCD TVs, plasma TVs and projectors for HDTV and monitors  Dell UltraSharp is further a high-end brand of monitors 
Dell service and support brands include the Dell Solution Station (extended domestic support services, previously "Dell on Call"), Dell Support Center (extended support services abroad), Dell Business Support (a commercial service-contract that provides an industry-certified technician with a lower call-volume than in normal queues), Dell Everdream Desktop Management ("Software as a Service" remote-desktop management, originally a SaaS company founded by Elon Musk's cousin, Lyndon Rive, which Dell bought in 2007), and Your Tech Team (a support-queue available to home users who purchased their systems either through Dell's website or through Dell phone-centers) 
Discontinued products and brands include Axim (PDA; discontinued April 9, 2007), Dimension (home and small office desktop computers; discontinued July 2007), Dell Digital Jukebox (MP3 player; discontinued August 2006), Dell PowerApp (application-based servers), Dell Optiplex (desktop and tower computers previously supported to run server and desktop operating systems), Dell Unix (an SVR4-based Unix operating system for its Dell-branded PCs and workstations; discontinued in 1993) and Dell Mobile Connect（Windows Mobile application; discontinued July 31st, 2022) 

Security
Self-signed root certificate
In November 2015, it emerged that several Dell computers had shipped with an identical pre-installed root certificate known as "eDellRoot"  This raised such security risks as attackers impersonating HTTPS-protected websites such as Google and Bank of America and malware being signed with the certificate to bypass Microsoft software filtering  Dell apologized and offered a removal tool 

Dell Foundation Services
Also in November 2015, a researcher discovered that customers with diagnostic program Dell Foundation Services could be digitally tracked using the unique service tag number assigned to them by the program  This was possible even if a customer enabled private browsing and deleted their browser cookies  Ars Technica recommended that Dell customers uninstall the program until the issue was addressed 

Commercial aspects
Organization
The board consists of nine directors  Michael Dell, the founder of the company, serves as chairman of the board and chief executive officer  Other board members include Don Carty, Judy Lewent, Klaus Luft, Alex Mandl, and Sam Nunn  Shareholders elect the nine board members at meetings, and those board members who do not get a majority of votes must submit a resignation to the board, which will subsequently choose whether or not to accept the resignation  The board of directors usually sets up five committees having oversight over specific matters  These committees include the Audit Committee, which handles accounting issues, including auditing and reporting; the Compensation Committee, which approves compensation for the CEO and other employees of the company; the Finance Committee, which handles financial matters such as proposed mergers and acquisitions; the Governance and Nominating Committee, which handles various corporate matters (including the nomination of the board); and the Antitrust Compliance Committee, which attempts to prevent company practices from violating antitrust laws Day-to-day operations of the company are run by the Global Executive Management Committee, which sets strategic direction  Dell has regional senior vice-presidents for countries other than the United States 

Marketing
Dell advertisements have appeared in several types of media including television, the Internet, magazines, catalogs, and newspapers  Some of Dell Inc's marketing strategies include lowering prices at all times of the year, free bonus products (such as Dell printers), and free shipping to encourage more sales and stave off competitors  In 2006, Dell cut its prices in an effort to maintain its 19 2% market share  This also cut profit margins by more than half, from 8 7 to 4 3 percent  To maintain its low prices, Dell continues to accept most purchases of its products via the Internet and through the telephone network, and to move its customer-care division to India and El Salvador A popular United States television and print ad campaign in the early 2000s featured the actor Ben Curtis playing the part of "Steven", a lightly mischievous blond-haired youth who came to the assistance of bereft computer purchasers  Each television advertisement usually ended with Steven's catch-phrase: "Dude, you're gettin' a Dell!"A subsequent advertising campaign featured interns at Dell headquarters (with Curtis' character appearing in a small cameo at the end of one of the first commercials in this particular campaign) 
In 2007, Dell switched advertising agencies in the US from BBDO to Working Mother Media  In July 2007, Dell released new advertising created by Working Mother to support the Inspiron and XPS lines  The ads featured music from the Flaming Lips and Devo who re-formed especially to record the song in the ad "Work it Out"  Also in 2007, Dell began using the slogan "Yours is here" to say that it customizes computers to fit customers' requirements Beginning in 2011, Dell began hosting a conference in Austin, Texas, at the Austin Convention Center titled "Dell World"  The event featured new technology and services provided by Dell and Dell's partners  In 2011, the event was held October 12–14  In 2012, the event was held December 11–13  In 2013, the event was held December 11–13  In 2014, the event was held November 4–6 

Dell partner program
In late 2007, Dell Inc  announced that it planned to expand its program to value-added resellers (VARs), giving it the official name of "Dell Partner Direct" and a new Website Dell India has started Online Ecommerce website with its Dell Partner www compuindia com GNG Electronics Pvt Ltd termed as Dell Express Ship Affiliate(DESA) 
The main objective was to reduce the delivery time  Customers who visit Dell India official site are given the option to buy online which then will be redirected to Dell affiliate website compuindia com 

Global analytics
Dell also operates a captive analytics division which supports pricing, web analytics, and supply chain operations  DGA operates as a single, centralized entity with a global view of Dell's business activities  The firm supports over 500 internal customers worldwide and has created a quantified impact of over $500 million 

Criticisms of marketing of laptop security
In 2008, Dell received press coverage over its claim of having the world's most secure laptops, specifically, its Latitude D630 and Latitude D830  At Lenovo's request, the (US) National Advertising Division (NAD) evaluated the claim, and reported that Dell did not have enough evidence to support it 

Retail
Dell first opened their retail stores in India 

United States
In the early 1990s, Dell sold its products through Best Buy, Costco and Sam's Club stores in the United States  Dell stopped this practice in 1994, citing low profit margins on the business, exclusively distributing through a direct-sales model for the next decade  In 2003, Dell briefly sold products in Sears stores in the US  In 2007, Dell started shipping its products to major retailers in the US once again, starting with Sam's Club and Wal-Mart  Staples, the largest office-supply retailer in the US, and Best Buy, the largest electronics retailer in the US, became Dell retail partners later that same year 

Kiosks
Starting in 2002, Dell opened kiosk locations in the United States to allow customers to examine products before buying them directly from the company  Starting in 2005, Dell expanded kiosk locations to include shopping malls across Australia, Canada, Singapore and Hong Kong  On January 30, 2008, Dell announced it would shut down all 140 kiosks in the US due to expansion into retail stores  By June 3, 2010, Dell had also shut down all of its mall kiosks in Australia 

Retail stores
As of the end of February 2008, Dell products shipped to one of the largest office supply retailers in Canada, Staples Business Depot  In April 2008, Future Shop and Best Buy began carrying a subset of Dell products, such as certain desktops, laptops, printers, and monitors 
Since some shoppers in certain markets show reluctance to purchase technological products through the phone or the Internet, Dell has looked into opening retail operations in some countries in Central Europe and Russia  In April 2007, Dell opened a retail store in Budapest  In October of the same year, Dell opened a retail store in Moscow 
In the UK, HMV's flagship Trocadero store has sold Dell XPS PCs since December 2007  From January 2008 the UK stores of DSGi have sold Dell products (in particular, through Currys and PC World stores)  As of 2008, the large supermarket chain Tesco has sold Dell laptops and desktops in outlets throughout the UK 
In May 2008, Dell reached an agreement with the office supply chain, Officeworks (part of Coles Group), to stock a few modified models in the Inspiron desktop and notebook range  These models have slightly different model numbers, but almost replicate the ones available from the Dell Store  Dell continued its retail push in the Australian market with its partnership with Harris Technology (another part of Coles Group) in November of the same year  In addition, Dell expanded its retail distributions in Australia through an agreement with the discount electrical retailer, The Good Guys, known for "Slashing Prices"  Dell agreed to distribute a variety of makes of both desktops and notebooks, including Studio and XPS systems in late 2008  Dell and Dick Smith Electronics (owned by Woolworths Limited) reached an agreement to expand within Dick Smith's 400 stores throughout Australia and New Zealand in May 2009 (1 year since Officeworks—owned by Coles Group—reached a deal)  The retailer has agreed to distribute a variety of Inspiron and Studio notebooks, with minimal Studio desktops from the Dell range  As of 2009, Dell continues to run and operate its various kiosks in 18 shopping centers throughout Australia  On March 31, 2010, Dell announced to Australian Kiosk employees that they were shutting down the Australian/New Zealand Dell kiosk program 
In Germany, Dell is selling selected smartphones and notebooks via Media Markt and Saturn, as well as some shopping websites 

Competition
Dell's major competitors include Lenovo, Hewlett-Packard (HP), Hasee, Acer, Fujitsu, Toshiba, Gateway, Sony, Asus, MSI, Panasonic, Samsung and Apple  Dell and its subsidiary, Alienware, compete in the enthusiast market against AVADirect, Falcon Northwest, VoodooPC (a subsidiary of HP), and other manufacturers  In the second quarter of 2006, Dell had between 18% and 19% share of the worldwide personal computer market, compared to HP with roughly 15% 
In late 2006, Dell lost its lead in the PC business to Hewlett-Packard  Both Gartner and IDC estimated that in the third quarter of 2006, HP shipped more units worldwide than Dell did  Dell's 3 6% growth paled in comparison to HP's 15% growth during the same period  The problem got worse in the fourth quarter, when Gartner estimated that Dell PC shipments declined 8 9% (versus HP's 23 9% growth)  As a result, at the end of 2006 Dell's overall PC market share stood at 13 9% (versus HP's 17 4%) 
IDC reported that Dell lost more server market share than any of the top four competitors in that arena  IDC's Q4 2006 estimates show Dell's share of the server market at 8 1%, down from 9 5% in the previous year  This represents an 8 8% loss year-over-year, primarily to competitors EMC and IBM  As of 2021, Dell is the third-largest PC manufacturer after Lenovo and HP 

Partnership with EMC
In 2001, Dell and EMC entered into a partnership whereby both companies jointly design products, and Dell provided support for certain EMC products including midrange storage systems, such as fibre channel and iSCSI storage area networks  The relationship also promotes and sells OEM versions of backup, recovery, replication and archiving software  On December 9, 2008, Dell and EMC announced the multi-year extension, through 2013, of the strategic partnership with EMC  In addition, Dell expanded its product lineup by adding the EMC Celerra NX4 storage system to the portfolio of Dell/EMC family of networked storage systems and partnered on a new line of data deduplication products as part of its TierDisk family of data storage devices On October 17, 2011, Dell discontinued reselling all EMC storage products, ending the partnership 2 years early  Later Dell would acquire and merge with EMC in the largest tech merger to date 

Environmental record
Dell committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions from its global activities by 40% by 2015, with the 2008 fiscal year as the baseline year   It is listed in Greenpeace's Guide to Greener Electronics that scores leading electronics manufacturers according to their policies on sustainability, climate and energy and how green their products are  In November 2011, Dell ranked 2nd out of 15 listed electronics makers (increasing its score to 5 1 from 4 9, which it gained in the previous ranking from October 2010) Dell was the first company to publicly state a timeline for the elimination of toxic polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and brominated flame retardants (BFRs), which it planned to phase out by the end of 2009  It revised this commitment and now aims to remove toxics by the end of 2011 but only in its computing products 
In March 2010, Greenpeace activists protested at Dell offices in Bangalore, Amsterdam and Copenhagen calling for Dell's founder and CEO Michael Dell to "drop the toxics" and claiming that Dell's aspiration to be 'the greenest technology company on the planet' was "hypocritical"   Dell has launched its first products completely free of PVC and BFRs with the G-Series monitors (G2210 and G2410) in 2009 In its 2012 report on progress relating to conflict minerals, the Enough Project rated Dell the eighth-highest of 24 consumer electronics companies 

Green initiatives
Dell became the first company in the information technology industry to establish a product-recycling goal (in 2004) and completed the implementation of its global consumer recycling-program in 2006 
On February 6, 2007, the National Recycling Coalition awarded Dell its "Recycling Works" award for efforts to promote producer responsibility 
On July 19, 2007, Dell announced that it had exceeded targets in working to achieve a multi-year goal of recovering 275 million pounds of computer equipment by 2009  The company reported the recovery of 78 million pounds (nearly 40,000 tons) of IT equipment from customers in 2006, a 93-percent increase over 2005; and 12 4% of the equipment Dell sold seven years earlier On June 5, 2007, Dell set a goal of becoming the greenest technology company on Earth for the long term  The company launched a zero-carbon initiative that includes:

reducing Dell's carbon intensity by 15 percent by 2012
requiring primary suppliers to report carbon emissions data during quarterly business reviews
partnering with customers to build the "greenest PC on the planet"
expanding the company's carbon-offsetting program, "Plant a Tree for Me"Dell reports its environmental performance in an annual Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Report that follows the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) protocol  Dell's 2008 CSR report ranked as "Application Level B" as "checked by GRI" The company aims to reduce its external environmental impact through an energy-efficient evolution of products, and also reduce its direct operational impact through energy-efficiency programs 

Criticism
In the 1990s, Dell switched from using primarily ATX motherboards and PSU to using boards and power supplies with mechanically identical but differently wired connectors  This meant customers wishing to upgrade their hardware would have to replace parts with scarce Dell-compatible parts instead of commonly available parts  While motherboard power connections reverted to the industry standard in 2003, Dell remains secretive about their motherboard pin-outs for peripherals (such as MMC readers and power on/off switches and LEDs) In 2005, complaints about Dell more than doubled to 1,533, after earnings grew 52% that year In 2006, Dell acknowledged that it had problems with customer service  Issues included call transfers
of more than 45% of calls and long wait times  Dell's blog detailed the response: "We're spending more than a $100 million—and a lot of blood, sweat, and tears of talented people—to fix this " Later in the year, the company increased its spending on customer service to $150 million  Since 2018, Dell has seen significant increase in consumer satisfaction  Moreover, their customer service has been praised for its prompt and accurate answers to most questions, especially those directed to their social media support On August 17, 2007, Dell Inc  announced that after an internal investigation into its accounting practices it would restate and reduce earnings from 2003 through to the first quarter of 2007 by a total amount of between $50 million and $150 million, or 2 cents to 7 cents per share  The investigation, begun in November 2006, resulted from concerns raised by the US Securities and Exchange Commission over some documents and information that Dell Inc  had submitted  It was alleged that Dell had not disclosed large exclusivity payments received from Intel for agreeing not to buy processors from rival manufacturer AMD  In 2010 Dell finally paid $100 million to settle the SEC's charges of fraud  Michael Dell and other executives also paid penalties and suffered other sanctions, without admitting or denying the charges In July 2009, Dell apologized after drawing the ire of the Taiwanese Consumer Protection Commission for twice refusing to honor a flood of orders against unusually low prices offered on its Taiwanese website  In the first instance, Dell offered a 19" LCD panel for $15  In the second instance, Dell offered its Latitude E4300 notebook at NT$18,558 (US$580), 70% lower than the usual price of NT$60,900 (US$1900)  Concerning the E4300, rather than honor the discount taking a significant loss, the firm withdrew orders and offered a voucher of up to NT$20,000 (US$625) a customer in compensation  The consumer rights authorities in Taiwan fined Dell NT$1 million (US$31250) for customer rights infringements  Many consumers sued the firm for unfair compensation  A court in southern Taiwan ordered the firm to deliver 18 laptops and 76 flat-panel monitors to 31 consumers for NT$490,000 (US$15,120), less than a third of the normal price  The court said the event could hardly be regarded as mistakes, as the prestigious firm said the company mispriced its products twice in Taiwanese website within 3 weeks After Michael Dell made a $24 4 billion buyout bid in August 2013, activist shareholder Carl Icahn sued the company and its board in an attempt to derail the bid and promote his own forthcoming offer In 2020, the Australian Strategic Policy Institute accused at least 82 major brands, including BYD, of being connected to forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang 

See also
List of computer system manufacturers
List of Dell ownership activities
Configurator
Mass customization
Passage 4:
Adam Dell
Adam R  Dell (born January 14, 1970) is an American venture capitalist and is the brother of Michael Dell, the founder of computer manufacturing company Dell Inc 

Early life and education
Dell was born in Houston, Texas to a German Jewish family  He attended Tulane University and the University of Texas School of Law 

Career
He began his career working as a corporate attorney for Winstead Sechrest & Minick, in Austin, Texas, before joining the venture capital firm of Enterprise Partners in La Jolla, California  He then joined Crosspoint Venture Partners, in Woodside, California, where he became a partner in 1999  In 2000 he formed Impact Venture Partners, a $100mm early stage venture capital firm, in New York City  Dell joined Austin Ventures as a venture partner in 2009  Dell joined Goldman Sachs as a partner in 2018 
During the course of his career, Dell invested in numerous technology companies such as Hotjobs com, which was acquired by Yahoo! in 2002; Ingenio, which was acquired by AT&T in 2007; and OpenTable He founded six companies: Clarity Money, which was acquired by Goldman Sachs in 2018, Civitas Learning, Buzzsaw com, which was acquired by AutoDesk in 2002, MessageOne which was acquired by Dell, Inc  in 2008, Domain Money, and Shared Earth  
Dell has served as an adjunct professor at both Columbia Business School and the University of Texas School of Law 

Personal life
In 2010, Dell had a daughter with Padma Lakshmi 
Passage 5:
The Dice Spelled Murder
The Dice Spelled Murder, by American novelist Al Fray, was published in 1957 by Dell Publishing Company, Inc  as a Dell (paperback) First Edition  The jacket notes
to Fray's subsequent novel, Come Back for More, refer to The Dice Spelled Murder as a "best selling" novel 

Plot introduction
Danny is a master with the dice and Velma could con any man into anything  As a pair they cruise the California convention circuit, hustling suckers and raking in the dough  Where will their greed finally take them? To the fulfillment of their dreams? Or to sudden, violent death?

Plot summary
Danny Hogan, a truck driver disaffected with his job at Torgus Trucking, meets beautiful Velma Reed in a seedy Los Angeles bar where she has been working as the bartender's shill, enticing lonely men to buy drinks  Danny doesn't recognize Velma, but the two of them attended the same high school in a distant city, where they were only casually acquainted 
Danny was expelled from high school after being caught using loaded dice in an after-school craps game  A short time later, and unbeknownst to Danny, Velma became pregnant and also left school and their home town  Now, a dozen years later, Velma recognizes Danny and renews their acquaintance  Appealing to his greed and his masculinity, she convinces him to use his skills with crooked dice in a confidence game to help her separate convention-goers from their money  At first reluctant because of a beating he received in the Army after being caught using altered dice, Danny eventually agrees, hoping to amass enough money to start his own trucking company  He soon comes to realize that Velma, too, has a loftier purpose in mind—buying a motel in Las Vegas that she can operate, in order to become "legit" and no longer feel ashamed of the way she earns money to support her young son, whom she has placed in a boarding school 
The bulk of the novel's action surrounds Velma's artful pickup of likely suckers at conventions, mostly in California cities, and Danny's subsequent fleecing of them in craps games  Their adventures bring them into contact with a number of ordinary and extraordinary characters, including a gay con artist toward whom Danny displays a disdain that was probably more politically correct in 1957 than it seems now  Various close calls ensue, and Danny loses some of his enthusiasm for the con  He tells Velma he wants to quit, but she convinces him to run the con with her one last time 
Along the way, and unbeknownst to Danny, Velma and another male friend, Joe Lovelli, have committed  blackmail  Velma has twice enticed men to her hotel room, where Joe waited in a closet with a camera  Using infrared film, Joe snapped photographs of the men in compromising positions with Velma  The blackmailers then extorted—or attempted to extort—hush-up money from their victims  Danny remains unaware of Velma and Joe's sideline until near the end of the book, when Velma's second blackmail victim, a mob-related big shot, propels the novel to its climax in a fatal car chase 
After struggling with a conflict between conscience and ambition, Danny mails the bulk of his dishonest gambling earnings to Velma's young son, keeping only enough to buy a good used truck so that he and Jill Conner—the pretty, young, former office manager at Torgus Trucking—can start their own trucking firm 
Passage 6:
Hagerty Insurance Agency
Hagerty, Inc  is an American automotive lifestyle and membership company and the world's largest provider of specialty insurance for classic vehicles  Hagerty is based in Traverse City, Michigan and also operates in Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom 

History
Hagerty was launched in 1984 by Frank and Louise Hagerty after they could not find good insurance coverage for their wooden boats  The company initially focused on providing coverage for antique boats, and later expanded into cars and other vehicles  In 1991, the company added coverage for classic cars In 2000, McKeel Hagerty, son of Frank and Louise, became CEO  Under McKeel Hagerty's guidance, the company developed an automotive media arm by launching Hagerty magazine (ISSN 2162-8033), covering the classic and enthusiast vehicle market  In 2020, the magazine was renamed Hagerty Drivers Club Magazine Hagerty published its first annual Hagerty Price Guide in 2008, a valuation tool that informs classic car buyers on how to best navigate the digital automotive age  Hagerty also originated both the Historic Vehicle Association (HVA) and the RPM Foundation In 2017, the company adopted saving driving and preserving automotive culture for future generations as its corporate mission  To support the mission, Hagerty launched Hagerty Drivers Club, offering members access to events, automotive discounts, roadside service and more  In 2017, Hagerty also acquired DriveShare  The company became the owner and organizer of the Greenwich Concours d'Elégance and established MotorsportReg com and Hagerty Garage + Social in 2019  In 2021 it bought the California Mile, the Concours d’Elegance of America, and the Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance In December 2021, Hagerty went public by merging with Aldel Financial, a SPAC, under the symbol HGTY  The merger deal was valued at $3 13 billion In January 2023, Hagerty launched Hagerty ECO (Enthusiast Carbon Offset) scheme for classic motorists to offset their carbon emissions  Hagerty partner with a third party to plant trees on your behalf  The scheme quickly came under scruitiny when the third party was found to be taking 20-30% of offset donations to simply pass the funds on to other charities  There are also no calculations provided as to how they achieve their CO2 or 'Trees' figures  A 2023 Bloomberg News article documented how within two years McKeel Hagerty turned the small family business into a conglomerate with dominance in the industry and classic car insurance markets 

In popular culture
Hagerty partnered with Japanese video game developer Polyphony Digital in 2022 to appear in the video game Gran Turismo 7  Hagerty branding appeared in the game's "Legend Cars Dealer" screen, and CEO McKeel Hagerty also featured, describing the cars that were available for the player to purchase, dubbed the "Hagerty Collection "
Context 3: Passage 1:
Meg Griffin
Meg Griffin is a fictional character in the animated television series Family Guy  Meg is the eldest child of Peter and Lois Griffin and older sister of Stewie and Chris, but is also the family's scapegoat who receives the least of their attention and tolerates the brunt of their abuse  She is often bullied, belittled, ridiculed, and ignored 
Meg first appeared on television, along with the rest of the Griffin family, in a 15-minute short on December 20, 1998  She was created and designed by Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane, who was asked to pitch a pilot to the Fox Broadcasting Company, based on The Life of Larry and Larry & Steve, two shorts made by MacFarlane featuring a middle-aged man named Larry and an intellectual dog, Steve  After the series pilot was given the greenlight, the Griffin family appeared in the episode "Death Has a Shadow" 
Originally voiced by Lacey Chabert during the first season, Meg has been voiced by Mila Kunis since season 2 

Personality
Meg is a self-conscious and insecure adolescent girl  She is treated unfairly and abused by various people and has numerous insecurities that prompt her to try to be part of the "in-crowd"  However, this only results in her getting rebuffed by the many bullies of this circle, particularly Connie D'Amico, the head cheerleader of the local high school, James Woods Regional High School  However, a nerdy Jewish student named Neil Goldman is attracted to her Meg is usually the butt of Peter's jokes due to her unpopularity and "ugliness"; Peter resorts to outrageous stunts and names  Stewie and Brian tend to disdain her kindness, but they typically do it behind Meg's back  Lois constantly puts Meg down, while boosting her own ego  Lois is usually of little to no help to Meg when she is abused by others; though her attitude is more negligent or apathetic than the more overt and direct abuse given by Peter 
While Meg is usually a pushover, she can get angry when pushed too far, though such occasions are usually rare  This can be seen in the episode "Seahorse Seashell Party", where she strongly insults and defames Peter, Lois, and even Chris for their inconsiderate actions toward her  This causes Peter, Lois, and Chris to distance themselves in shame and sends Peter into depression; though she later apologizes upon realizing that the family needs a "lightning rod" to absorb the dysfunction  In the episode "Road to Rupert", Meg assaults a man for insulting her after a fender-bender 
Despite her persistent mistreatment, Meg has proven a variety of times throughout the series that she is more talented and has greater potential than most people bother to realize, such as bird calls, playing the saxophone, speaking and singing in foreign languages, and even sports such as bowling, field hockey, basketball, roller derby, and even Olympic sports  However, she seldom earns any notable accolades for these abilities, mostly due to her family's lack of regard or interest in her or her inability to stick up against them 
Many of the show's storylines about Meg involve her trying to improve her life, find a boyfriend, being a Russian sleeper agent, and reaching breaking points with her family and others who victimize her  She often becomes obsessed with men who show any kindness or affection to her, including the Griffin's friend and neighbor Joe Swanson in the episode "The Hand That Rocks the Wheelchair", and Brian in "Barely Legal" 
Out of all the members of the family, her father Peter abuses her the most, however he is shown to actually care about Meg in various episodes, such as in "Meg and Quagmire" when he goes out of his way to prevent friend and neighbor Glenn Quagmire from having sex with her, and in "This Little Piggy" where he tries to get Meg out of a foot fetishism business objectifying her for men's sexual amusement  Peter occasionally cares about Meg but is not open about it to anyone 

Voice actors
On the season 1 DVD commentary for the Drawn Together episode "Hot Tub", Cree Summer claims she was offered the role to play Meg but was dismissed by the producers  Meg was voiced by an uncredited Lacey Chabert for the first season, and by Mila Kunis in subsequent seasons after Chabert became busy with school and her role on Party of Five, although some of her work became second season episodes due to production order  Mila Kunis won the role after a series of auditions and callbacks where she was asked to speak more slowly and enunciate more; she was ultimately hired despite being unsure she understood what was expected of her  MacFarlane felt that Kunis invigorated the character, and that her work on That '70s Show showed she could command a scene  MacFarlane stated that Kunis "had a very natural quality to Meg" and she's "in a lot of ways [   ] almost more right for the character"  Kunis' voice is first heard as Meg in Episode 3 of season two "Da Boom", and the voices switch back and forth in the broadcast order until settling on Kunis  Tara Strong provides Meg's singing voice in "Don't Make Me Over"  Archival recordings of Lacey Chabert's voice that she provided as Meg Griffin are used in the tenth season episode "Back to the Pilot" in which Brian and Stewie go back in time to the events of "Death Has a Shadow"  However, Chabert does in fact return for the eleventh season episode "Yug Ylimaf" as Stewie references the fact that time has reversed so much that Meg's voice has reverted back from that of Kunis' to Chabert's 

Lacey Chabert (1999–2000; 2011 archive recordings, 2012)
Mila Kunis (1999–present)
Tara Strong (singing voice)

Social life
Meg is very unpopular in high school due to both her plain appearance and personality  She desperately tries to be part of the cool crowd, but is usually coldly rebuffed  Because of her eagerness for acceptance, she has been recruited "unknowingly" into a suicidal religious cult, and later recruited again unwittingly into her school's Lesbian Alliance (in the episode "Brian Sings and Swings" )  However, Meg does have a moderate number of friends, the best of whom being a group of girls who are often seen with her during occasions such as her slumber parties and gossiping about boys  In later episodes, these girls, known by the names Beth, Patty, Collette, Esther, and Ruth, are characterized as being highly unpopular and dateless, much like Meg 
Meg is so unpopular at school that one student fires a nail gun into his own abdomen twice (in shop class) in order to avoid a date with her, and then in a later episode, another student shoots his own brother as an excuse not to go to a dance with her the following night  In "Don't Make Me Over", Lois is looking for new clothes for Meg, but with no luck; a saleswoman ends up pouring gasoline on herself, lighting a match, catching fire, and then jumping out of a window after looking at Meg in a pair of jeans  However, she is sought by nerd Neil Goldman  In "8 Simple Rules for Buying My Teenage Daughter", Neil starts dating a girl named Cecilia, Meg becomes instantly jealous and pretends to date Jake Tucker to make him jealous  This leads to her signing a contract to become Neil's girlfriend and (not knowing at first) his slave, but she gets him to tear up the contract after Lois seduces him  Perverted neighbor Glenn Quagmire has shown a repeated interest in her, mostly due to his very low standards, asking if she has reached the age of consent  Quagmire comes close to succeeding in "Meg and Quagmire" when Lois tells Peter to back off after he was ruining Meg and Quagmire's 'dates'  Then, they rescue Meg after Glenn takes her to his cabin, Peter and Lois arriving in time before anything happens  In several episodes she is shown dating, including stories with characters Mayor Adam West and nudist Jeff Campbell  She also loses her virginity unknowingly on live television to Saturday Night Live host Jimmy Fallon after having a drastic makeover; but, before all that happens, she goes out with a rebel at her school named Craig Hoffman  In "Jerome is the New Black", Jerome, an old flame of Lois's and Peter's new friend, admits to having sex with Meg, to which Peter replies indifferently 
In the episode "Brian Sings and Swings", a lesbian student named Sarah invites Meg to join in her Lesbian Alliance Club, with Meg not knowing at first what kind of club it was  Desperate to fit in, she pretends to be a lesbian and also pretends to be attracted to Sarah and even goes so far as to kiss her to prove it  At the end of the episode, Meg goes over to Sarah's house to admit she lied about being a lesbian (Sarah thought that Meg came over to have sex and even undresses when Meg is telling her that she lied), much to Glenn's (who was hiding in Sarah's closet) disappointment  She also used to have a crush on anchorman Tom Tucker, but it ended after she discovered his vanity and selfishness  In other episodes, she is portrayed as chronically incapable of finding a boyfriend  For her Junior Prom she accepts a pity date from Brian, the family dog and only after threatening suicide Earlier in season 2, she dated Joe Swanson's son Kevin Swanson, but in "Stew-Roids" it is mentioned that Kevin died in Iraq  In the episode, "Prick Up Your Ears", she dates a boy named Doug, but he breaks up with her when he sees her naked right before almost having sex  In the episode "Peter's Daughter", Meg falls in love with a medical student named Michael Milano after coming out of a short coma (caused by Peter when he asked her to "rescue" beer and make him a sandwich out of an already flooded kitchen) and they start to date  After he breaks up with Meg (because of Peter being overprotective of her after promising that if she came out of the coma, he would "treat her like a princess"), she announces that she is pregnant by Michael and the two get engaged  After finding out that she is not actually pregnant, Meg tells Michael the truth hoping that he will stay, however, Michael quickly leaves Meg at the altar  In the episode "Dial Meg for Murder", she is dating a convict, while in the episode "Go, Stewie, Go!" she dates an attractive young man named Anthony, who is absolutely normal (much to the surprise of many of the other characters)  They were so shocked that they had to do tests just to see if he was completely normal which annoyed Meg  It is presumed that she broke up with him after he and Lois had an affair  Meg also shows extremely possessive behavior when she encounters someone she believes she has a romantic connection with such as kidnapping Brian and detaining Bonnie Swanson at the airport by planting a gun in her purse 
Overall, Meg has shown romantic interest in and dated several men throughout the series  However, there have been several instances in which she has shown hints of being bisexual or a lesbian: examples of this include "Brian Sings and Swings", "Stew-Roids", and "Dial Meg for Murder" 
In November 2016, when asked by Splitsider if the writers will further develop the characters of Chris and Meg in future episodes, showrunner Alec Sulkin confirmed that the series crew members are working on doing so and added that there are plans for an episode where Meg comes out as a lesbian, taking inspiration from previous instances in which she exhibited signs of lesbian characteristics, like when she joins a lesbian alliance group at school in "Brian Sings and Swings" and is identified as a "transgender man" named "Ron" in Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, the latter which takes place in the future  However, Sulkin also noted that the plotline has not yet been finalized and thus isn't officially set to be used in an episode 

Family life
In the first three seasons of the show, Meg was portrayed with a more whiny and uptight personality who was often embarrassed by the family’s acts of bumbling and stupidity, though they cared for her and meant well  In the post-cancellation seasons, this began to change as the inadvertent embarrassment became deliberate bullying and disrespect  Additionally, the show started to flesh out the characters to the point where it appears that most of the population of Quahog who knows her, or even just meets her, picks on or disdains her for no reason other than her simply being "Meg"  This basically means that she is a victim of circumstance, as Meg is normally docile and well-behaved and never seems to do anything mean or inconsiderate  In an interview, Mila Kunis stated: "Meg gets picked on a lot  But it's funny  It's like the middle child  She is constantly in the state of being an awkward 16-year-old, when you're kind of going through puberty and what-not  She's just in perpetual mode of humiliation, and it's fun "While Meg is, in reality, the least obnoxious or self-involved of the family, she is also the least respected and most misunderstood, often shown by people avoiding her company, disparaging her in person, gathering in her bedroom to read her diary for laughs, etc  Peter reminds Lois, "We agreed that if we could only save two, we'd leave Meg!" even randomly shooting her when she simply said "Hi Dad" ("Peter's Daughter") but despite this he also was going to say "I love you" in "Hell Comes to Quahog", and in "Road to Rupert" he stated they were 'secret best friends' before throwing lemonade in her face, saying he would have to continue to treat her badly in public in order to maintain his reputation due to "peer pressure", thus giving hope that they may be on good terms  Occasionally, when Meg asks a question to Peter or just speaks when he is in the room, Peter responds by saying "Shut up, Meg", which is immediately followed by a line from another character 
When the family tries an anger management technique of writing letters and not sending them, Meg finds Peter's letter to her, which says, "Dear Meg, for the first four years of your life, I thought you were a house cat " And in Peter's short story of her birth, they had to go back to get her once they realized they grabbed the afterbirth  In the episode "Stewie Kills Lois", Peter tells guests on a cruise ship about how he and Lois had gone to get an abortion but decided against it when they arrived at the clinic and found out the abortionist had one hand  He then says "two and a half months later, our daughter Meg was born" – indicating that they had tried to abort her when Lois was already over six months pregnant  Another hint to this is when Meg is in the car with Lois and at an attempt to make civilized conversation, says, "Hey Meg, did you know that if you're on birth control and you take an antibiotic it makes it not work? 'Cause no one told me! I just thought you should know" and laughs awkwardly  On Meg's 17th birthday, her mother and father both try to hide from Meg that they do not remember her age  Peter states that Meg sucks in the episode "PTV", and Chris says that people think the same thing about her in "Long John Peter"  In "Not All Dogs Go to Heaven", Brian says to Meg's face that she lives in a home "where nobody respects or cares about [her], not even enough to get [her] a damn mumps shot!" Chris, however, has more of a typical brother-sister relationship with Meg, with Chris telling those who condemn her that it is never her fault  Chris, at one point, threatened to quit his job at the local mini-mart if his boss didn't re-hire Meg (at the insistence of Lois)  Like Chris, Meg has an anthropomorphic monkey in her closet, and although she has proved it, her father coldly state that they were talking about Chris', not hers  Cleveland comments to Peter "Meg is my least favorite of your children "Apparently, a double standard also exists against Meg, further underscoring the mistreatment she suffers from the people around her  In "Big Man on Hippocampus", an episode wherein Peter loses his memory, as he reacquaints himself with the pleasures of sex, Lois tells him that it is inappropriate to have sex with his own children; in response, Meg attempts an incest joke  She then lambastes her for this and kicks her out of the room  However, in the season finale "Partial Terms of Endearment", Lois tells a joke that implies that it was Meg that gave birth to Stewie, and apart from a shocked reaction from the latter, Lois receives no such violent reaction  Additionally, in "Model Misbehavior", when Lois starts a modeling career, Peter states that he will pleasure himself to Lois' pictures, followed by Chris and Meg both exclaiming "Me too!" to which Peter shouts "Oh God, Meg, that's sick! That's your mother!", ignoring the fact that Chris said the same thing first  Meg responded by saying "I was only trying to fit in!" Peter immediately kicked her out of the house  Later, during an unrelated conversation, when she tried to insight Peter on how Lois' behavior from modeling made a poor example for women, he said "Meg, who let you back in the house?"
Brian's attention initially softens the lack of respect from Peter and the rest of family; he admits that he cares for Meg when she goes out with Mayor Adam West  While initially seeming to have more common decency for Meg than most people, this appears to almost completely disappear after the tenth season, as Brian's increasingly shallow and self-centered character begins to take more pleasure and joy in being rotten to Meg and often refuses to give her the time of day, such as desperately trying to avoid having to comfort her, rejecting an offer by Peter to be Meg's godfather, attempting to pin the blame on (or trying to frame) her for a misdeed, finding humor in her being puked on, and even willing to deliberately urinate on her bed  Meg's most complicated relationship among the family members after Peter would be with her mother Lois  Although not as abusive as Peter, Lois seldom (if ever) reprimands her husband for their treatment of their daughter and tends to be rather thoughtless of Meg herself, often putting her down for her lack of social achievement or social popularity  Throughout the series, Lois can best be described as a general foil to her daughter, being more rebellious, outgoing, and loose-spirited compared to her daughter's own uptight demeanor, easily-embarrassed personality, and lack of confidence  Before the more recent seasons of the series, Lois has also often shown sympathy for Meg and tried to boost her confidence in terms of teenage social matters  Occasionally however, such occasions resulted in the former getting carried away and stealing the show, for example, taking her to Spring Break at the beach, only for her former younger wild side to kick in and completely exclude Meg from the excitement  Lois would very often comfort Meg when she is down; however, she gives up one attempt after 45 minutes and gives her a Sylvia Plath novel and a bottle of Ambien, and with a "Whatever happens, happens", leaves Meg to her misery 
One of the most cruel examples of the family's lack of humanity or gratitude for Meg comes in the episode "You Can't Do That On Television, Peter"  When Peter is mauled by a puma, Meg uses medical training to save his life  However, no one thanks her afterward and when she tries to point it out, Peter just tells her to get him water 
The family's treatment of Meg finally reaches her limit in "Dial Meg for Murder" when Meg emerges from a short stint in a Young Offenders Institution as a hardened criminal, abusing her family and beating up anyone who makes fun of her  It is only after a conversation with Brian that she changes her ways  However, it comes to a head once again in "Seahorse Seashell Party", when Meg finally grows tired of her mistreatment and lashes out against Lois and Peter, informing them of their own flaws  Lois condescendingly tells Meg that she is simply taking her own problems out on everyone else invoking Meg to bring up her mother's delinquent past  Meg tells her that she is far from the perfect parent, harshly berates her for constantly and ruthlessly pointing out Meg's shortcomings  Lois tries to justify that she's a better person because of her past and she is open that she isn't the perfect parent, but Meg tells her that she's the farthest thing from and states how she has neglected to guide her through life and navigate her through the hardships and difficulties of being a young woman  Meg also informs Lois that when she turns 18, she may never want to see her again  This breaks Lois' heart and she finally admits that she's been a terrible mother to Meg  Finally, Meg turns on Peter who, unable to comprehend her insults, thinks that his daughter's argument is amusing, even when she points out Peter's destructive tendencies and that he would go to jail if someone could witness his negative treatment towards her  It dawns on Peter that he is being insulted when Meg calls him a "waste of a man " A disillusioned Peter asks Lois to tell Meg to "knock it off", but Lois refuses because he didn't stick up for her  Within moments, Peter turns his abusive criticisms and insults on Chris and Lois  Peter finally runs to his room crying, with Lois running after him, leaving behind Meg and Brian, who is now fully recovered from his trip, to discuss what just happened  Brian likes that Meg stood up for herself, but she sadly tells him that even though she meant every word, seeing Peter turn on everyone like wolves has made her think that it is ultimately her non-ideal role to serve as the Griffins' "lightning rod that absorbs all the dysfunction"  He commends her on her maturity, and even goes on to say that Meg is the "strongest person" in the family  She soon apologizes to the others and says that she is actually the one at fault 
Since this episode, the abuse that Meg receives begins to fade away as a storyline  She also notices that Peter's pro wrestler sister Karen treats Peter exactly the way Peter treats her, and they bond over this with a plan to embarrass Karen at a wrestling show—which goes awry when Meg hits her with a metal folding chair instead of a breakaway one and injures Karen to the point where she ends up in a coma and (as it is implied) possibly will die from her injuries without a blood transfusion 

Notes
Passage 2:
List of Family Guy cast members
Family Guy is an American animated sitcom that features five main voice actors, and numerous regular cast and recurring guest stars  The principal voice cast consists of show creator Seth MacFarlane, Alex Borstein, Mila Kunis (who replaced Lacey Chabert after the first season (her last episode is "Holy Crap," now marketed as the second episode of season two)), Seth Green, and Mike Henry  Recurring voice actors include Patrick Warburton, Adam West, John G  Brennan, Nicole Sullivan and Jennifer Tilly, and repeat guest stars include Phyllis Diller, Charles Durning, Rush Limbaugh, James Woods and Phil LaMarr 
Many cast members provide voices for multiple characters  The voice actors, in portraying the various character personalities on the show, draw inspiration from celebrities and pop culture  Family Guy characters have been played by more than one actor, after members of the show left the series or had conflicting obligations 
Kunis was nominated for an Annie Award for voicing Meg Griffin in the season 5 episode "Barely Legal" and MacFarlane has also won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Voice-Over Performance and an Annie Award for Best Voice Acting in an Animated Television Production, though no other cast member has won an award for their work on the series 

Current cast
From seasons 1 to 4, Family Guy had four main cast members  Since season 5, there have been five main cast members  The casting of Meg Griffin changed after season 1 

Seth MacFarlane
Seth MacFarlane voices four of the show's main characters: Peter Griffin, Brian Griffin, Stewie Griffin, and Glenn Quagmire  MacFarlane chose to voice these characters himself, believing it would be easier to portray the voices he had already envisioned than for someone else to attempt it  MacFarlane drew inspiration for the voice of Peter from a security guard he overheard talking while attending the Rhode Island School of Design  Stewie's voice was based on the voice of English actor Rex Harrison, especially his performance in the 1964 musical drama film My Fair Lady  The voice for Glenn Quagmire is based on 1940s and 1950s radio commercials  MacFarlane uses his own voice while portraying Brian MacFarlane also provides the voices for various other recurring and one-time only characters, including news anchor Tom Tucker, Lois' father Carter Pewterschmidt and Dr  Hartman   He is the only cast member to be in every episode 

Alex Borstein
Alex Borstein voices Lois Griffin, Asian correspondent Tricia Takanawa, Loretta Brown and Lois' mother Barbara Pewterschmidt  Borstein was asked to provide a voice for the pilot while she was working on MADtv  She had not met MacFarlane or seen any of his artwork and said it was "really sight unseen"  At the time, Borstein performed in a stage show in Los Angeles, in which she played a redhead mother whose voice she had based on one of her cousins  The voice was originally slower (and deeper for the original season), but when MacFarlane heard it, he replied "Make it a little less fucking annoying     and speed it up, or every episode will last four hours "

Seth Green
Seth Green primarily plays Chris Griffin and Neil Goldman  Green stated that he did an impression of the "Buffalo Bill" character from the thriller film The Silence of the Lambs during his audition  His main inspiration for Chris' voice came from envisioning how "Buffalo Bill" would sound if he were speaking through a public address system at a McDonald's 

Mila Kunis
Mila Kunis voices Meg Griffin  Kunis won the role after the auditions and a slight rewrite of the character, in part due to her performance on That '70s Show  MacFarlane called Kunis back after her first audition, instructing her to speak slower, and then told her to come back another time and enunciate more  Once she claimed that she had it under control, MacFarlane hired her  Kunis described her character as "the scapegoat"  She further explained, "Meg gets picked on a lot  But it's funny  It's like the middle child  She is constantly in the state of being an awkward 14-year-old, when you're kind of going through puberty and what-not  She's just in a perpetual mode of humiliation  And it's fun "

Mike Henry
Mike Henry is the voice of Cleveland Brown, John Herbert “The Pervert”, Bruce, Consuela, and various other characters  A Family Guy writer and producer, he began acting on the show as part of the recurring cast repertory (see below) but was promoted to main cast member in 2005  Since the cancellation of The Cleveland Show, he also voices Cleveland's step-son Rallo Tubbs on Family Guy  On June 26, 2020, after twenty years of voicing the character, Mike Henry announced on Twitter that he was stepping down from voicing Cleveland, stating "persons of color should play characters of color " On September 25, 2020, it was announced that Arif Zahir would take over as the voice of Cleveland 

Recurring cast
In addition to both its main cast and guest stars, Family Guy utilizes a deep bench of regularly appearing supporting voice actors  Some appear in nearly every episode each season, while others appear less frequently  Some of these actors specifically play recurring characters, while others mainly play background citizens of Quahog or characters in cutaway gags 
The current supporting cast repertory includes the following actors:

In addition to the above, the following actors were formerly regularly recurring voice actors in the series:

Recurring guest voices
The recurring guest voices include Adam Carolla as Death, Patrick Stewart as Susie Swanson, Scott Grimes as Kevin Swanson, Sanaa Lathan as Donna Tubbs Brown and Emily Osment as Ruth Cochamer  Previous recurring guests included Phyllis Diller in three episodes as Peter's Mother, Thelma, and Charles Durning as Peter's father, Francis  Both characters have since died, but Durning returned once to play Francis as a ghost  Early in the show's run, Fred Willard and Jane Lynch had a recurring role as a family of nudists and James Woods as himself  In 2020, it was announced that Sam Elliott would take over as Quahog's new mayor, Mayor West's estranged cousin Wyld West 

Casting changes
Lacey Chabert voiced Meg for the first production season (14 episodes), but, because of a contractual agreement, was never credited  Chabert left the series due to time constraints with her acting role in Party of Five, as well as schoolwork 
Jon Cryer voiced Kevin Swanson in his first appearance before the role passed to Seth MacFarlane  The character was written out of the series for several years, with Scott Grimes taking over the voice when the character returned 
Fairuza Balk was the original voice of high school bully Connie D'Amico until Lisa Wilhoit took over the character from the third to eighteenth seasons 
Natasha Melnick was the original voice of Meg Griffin's Friend Ruth Cochamer until Emily Osment took over the character in the eleventh season 
Beginning in 2021-onward, Arif Zahir took over voicing Cleveland Brown from Mike Henry 

Awards and nominations
See also
Television portal
Passage 3:
The Cleveland Show
The Cleveland Show is an American animated sitcom created by Seth MacFarlane, Richard Appel, and Mike Henry for the Fox Broadcasting Company



ground_truth: Qatar Stars League

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: What is the highest city in the state where Dell ranks sixth by revenue?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  A spin-off of Family Guy, and the second television series in the franchise, the series centers on Cleveland Brown, his new wife Donna Tubbs-Brown, and their children Cleveland Brown Jr , Roberta Tubbs, and Rallo Tubbs  Similar to Family Guy, it exhibited much of its humor in the form of cutaway gags that often lampoon American culture, though it uses significantly fewer than Family Guy  Fox cancelled the series after 4 seasons  The animation was produced by Fox Television Animation 
The series was conceived by MacFarlane in 2007 after developing Family Guy and American Dad! for the Fox network  MacFarlane centered the show on Family Guy character Cleveland Brown and created new characters for Cleveland's family members  One preexisting character, Cleveland's son Cleveland Jr  (Junior), was redesigned as an obese, soft-spoken teen, as opposed to his depiction as a younger, hyperactive child with average body weight on Family Guy 
The series premiered on September 27, 2009, and ended on May 19, 2013, with a total of 88 episodes over the course of 4 seasons  The Cleveland Show was nominated for one Annie Award, one Primetime Emmy Award, and two Teen Choice Awards, but received mixed reviews from media critics  Nearly a year after the series' cancelation, Cleveland returned to Family Guy, accompanied by the rest of the Brown-Tubbs family, in the season 12 episode "He's Bla-ack!" during which his show was mercilessly mocked by his friends 

Production
Development
Seth MacFarlane initially conceived The Cleveland Show in 2007 while working on his other two animated series, Family Guy and American Dad! 

The Cleveland Show first appeared on the development slate at Fox in early 2008, under no official name for the pilot, after a report that Fox had purchased the series from creators  The pilot was named The Cleveland Show in May 2008, when it appeared on the primetime slate for the 2008–09 television season, although it wasn't officially on the network schedule  Shortly after a report that King of the Hill just ended, leaving air time for The Cleveland Show, the show was picked up for a full season after an additional nine episodes of the show were ordered  In May 2009, The Cleveland Show appeared on the primetime slate for the 2009–10 television season, for airing on Sunday nights at 8:30 pm On June 15, 2009, it was announced that The Cleveland Show would premiere on September 27, 2009 MacFarlane and Henry pitched a 22-minute to Fox which aired on September 27, 2009 but had been leaked on the internet in June 2009  Even before the pilot episode premiered, the show had already been renewed for a 22-episode second season  After the first season of the show aired, it was given the green light to start production  On June 10, 2010, less than three weeks into the first season's summer hiatus, it was announced that Fox was ordering a third season  A fourth season was announced on May 9, 2011, just a few days before the second season concluded 

Executive producers
Seth MacFarlane, Mike Henry and Richard Appel have served as executive producers on the series since the first season 

Voice cast
Mike Henry voices two of the show's main characters: Cleveland Brown and Rallo Tubbs  The voice of Cleveland was developed originally for Family Guy by Henry after being influenced by one of his best friends who had a very distinct regional accent  For the voice of Rallo, Henry stated that he created the voice over twenty years before; he had used it while making prank phone calls 
Sanaa Lathan voices Donna Tubbs, the wife of Cleveland, stepmother of Cleveland Brown Jr , and mother of Roberta and Rallo Tubbs  In developing the character, Lathan said that the producers "wanted her to be educated, but to have some edge " Prior to voicing Donna, Lathan had only one other voice credit in a relatively low-budget film entitled The Golden Blaze  In addition to the show, she also primarily worked as an actress in such films as Alien vs  Predator, Blade, Love & Basketball and The Family That Preys 
Reagan Gomez-Preston plays Roberta Tubbs, the stepdaughter of Cleveland  Gomez has stated that she uses her own voice to portray Roberta and that she herself gets mistaken for a fifteen-year-old over the phone "all the time " Before Gomez was cast as Roberta, Nia Long (who co-starred with Lathan in The Best Man franchise) provided the character's voice during the first thirteen episodes  According to Long, she was replaced because producers decided they wanted an actress with a younger-sounding voice, given that the character is a teenager Kevin Michael Richardson, a recurring guest voice on Family Guy and American Dad!, portrays Cleveland, Jr , as well as Cleveland's next-door neighbor Lester Krinklesac  In portraying Cleveland, Jr , Richardson drew inspiration from a character named Patrick that he had played on the NBC drama series ER who was mentally impaired and wore a football helmet  For Lester, Richardson stated in an interview that, being African American, he had "run into a few rednecks in [his] time", and decided to simply perform a stereotypical redneck impression for the voice of Lester Jason Sudeikis plays Holt Richter, one of Cleveland's drinking buddies with short stature, and Terry Kimple, one of Cleveland's longtime friends who now works with him at Waterman Cable  Sudeikis originally began as a recurring cast member, but starting with the episode "Harder, Better, Faster, Browner", he was promoted to a series regular 
Seth MacFarlane played Tim the Bear up until season 3 episode 10, which MacFarlane admits is a "Steve Martin impression [   ] a Wild and Crazy Guy impression"  Jess Harnell voices the character for the rest of the series from the next episode onward, as MacFarlane grew tired of voicing the character 
Other voices include that of Arianna Huffington as Tim's wife Arianna the Bear, Nat Faxon as Tim and Arianna's son Raymond the Bear, Jamie Kennedy as Roberta's boyfriend Gabriel Friedman, a k a  " Federline Jones", Will Forte as Principal Wally, Frances Callier as Evelyn "Cookie" Brown, Craig Robinson as LeVar "Freight Train" Brown and David Lynch as Gus the bartender 

Characters
Cleveland's newly introduced family includes his new wife, Donna Tubbs-Brown (voiced by Sanaa Lathan); Donna's daughter Roberta (originally voiced by Nia Long, but later voiced by Reagan Gomez-Preston); and Donna's son Rallo (voiced by Mike Henry)  Cleveland, Jr  underwent a complete redesign for the show, becoming sensitive and soft-spoken 

Episodes
Crossovers with other animated sitcoms
The Cleveland Show characters have appeared on other animated sitcoms and vice versa  The Cleveland Show crossovers have all involved two other animated programs  Both the other two animated programs were also created by Seth MacFarlane—Family Guy and American Dad!  There are also many brief cameos of characters from three other Fox animated shows, The Simpsons, Futurama, and King of the Hill 

Syndication and streaming
In July 2010, the Turner Broadcasting System picked up syndication rights, for their networks TBS and later, Adult Swim  The series first aired on Adult Swim in the United States on September 29, 2012  On July 14, 2018, Viacom later picked up the rights to the series and the series left Adult Swim and TBS on September 9, 2018  The series began airing on Comedy Central in the United States on October 8, 2018 until April 29, 2022 with ViacomCBS sister networks BET and VH1 airing the series starting on August 31, 2020 and September 14, 2020, respectively  The series is available for streaming on Hulu 
The series began airing on FXX on September 20, 2021 Internationally, The Cleveland Show is available to stream on Star on Disney+ 

Cancellation
On April 17, 2013, Fox dismissed increasing rumors that The Cleveland Show had been canceled, reporting rather that renewal of the series was undetermined as of that time  However, on May 13, 2013, in the New York Daily News, Fox Chairman of Entertainment Kevin Reilly confirmed the show's cancellation  Following the series cancellation, it was confirmed that Cleveland would be moving back to Quahog with the rest of the Brown-Tubbs family to rejoin the Family Guy cast 

Reception
Critical reception
The Cleveland Show initially received mixed reviews from critics  Review aggregator Metacritic gave the show a score of 57 out of 100  Tom Shales of The Washington Post spoke very negatively about both the show and MacFarlane himself, describing him as "no better than the dirty old man hanging around playgrounds with naughty pictures or risque jokes as lures"  Roberto Bianco of USA Today wrote a similarly negative review, suggesting that the easiest fix for its problem was "cancellation"  John McWhorter of The New Republic called it "a patronizing mess" and "basically Family Guy in blackface"  He added: "What isn't black in it is so shamelessly ripped off from Family Guy that it's hard to believe it's the product of creators who are usually so studiously 'post-' obvious stunts of the sort "Matt Rouse of TV Guide wrote, "The lamest, most unnecessary spin-off since Private Practice, Cleveland rests on the shoulders of the hopelessly bland title character"  However, Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette was more positive about the program, writing that although The Cleveland Show was "just as rude-crude" as Family Guy, it also had "more warmth" due to Cleveland being a more likable character than Peter Griffin  Owen also praised the character of Tim the Bear, stating that "Tim is by far the most amusing creation " Jonathan Storm of the Philadelphia Inquirer, also spoke positively, stating that "[Cleveland] sounds funnier, and he shows way more personality than we've seen in his many years on Family Guy  [   ] While it seems to be missing some of the over-the-top offensive bites we're used to on Family Guy, and Cleveland's new drinking buddies aren't quite as amusing as the Quagmire, Joe, and Peter combination - there's a lot to like here "

Nielsen ratings
Awards and nominations
Home media
Internationally The Cleveland Show is available to stream on Star on Disney + with all four seasons 
Passage 4:
Big Chuck and Lil' John
Charles "Big Chuck" Schodowski (born June 28, 1934) and "Lil' John" Rinaldi (born January 19, 1946) – together commonly known as Big Chuck and Lil' John – are a duo of entertainers who served as late-night horror hosts of The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show on television station WJW in Cleveland, Ohio from 1963 to 2008   In addition to hosting a movie with a live audience, they also performed original sketch comedy routines   At the end of each sketch was a very distinctive laugh (see external links section below) voiced by comedian/actor Jay Lawrence, who was a disc jockey for KYW radio in Cleveland during the early 1960s 
On September 10, 2011, WJW began airing a weekly half-hour program – simply titled Big Chuck and Lil' John – featuring classic show skits along with limited new production 

History
Chuck Schodowski (b  June 28, 1934) started as a producer/engineer at WJW-TV (and before that at KYW-TV), and became a close friend of Ernie Anderson  When Anderson's previous sidekick, eventual Hollywood actor Tim Conway, was fired for a fabrication on his résumé, Schodowski was hired as Conway's replacement  Schodowski worked closely with Anderson (as Ghoulardi) on Shock Theater, and was instrumental in bringing in the blend of blues and polka music that helped define the show, adding comic audio drop-ins to enliven the often awful movies, and immortalized The Rivingtons' tune "Papa Oom Mow Mow" by marrying it to the image of an old man gurning When Anderson left Cleveland for California in 1966, his popular Ghoulardi character was retired, and a talent search ensued to find a replacement  Schodowski agreed to help Bob Wells (WJW's "Hoolihan the Weatherman") with his audition, and the management decided they liked the way the two performed together  They became co-hosts of The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show, which launched on December 23, 1966  In addition to screening horror films, the duo soon started filming comedy skits interspersed within the host segments After Wells left the show in 1979, John Rinaldi, a jeweler by trade who had already been featured on many of the program's skits, took over as co-host  The show itself was relaunched as The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show, and while effectively a separate and distinct show, the familiar Catch As Catch Can theme was retained, among other show elements  Moreover, taped skits from the preceding show often would be rerun on The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show through various "oldies nights" 
For many years, the show aired at 11:30 p m  on Friday nights before moving to 11:30 p m  on Saturday nights starting on October 1, 1988 (to accommodate The Arsenio Hall Show, which WJW was airing following their weeknight 11 p m  newscasts), then back to Fridays following WJW's affiliation switch to Fox in 1994 
After Fox acquired WJW in 1996, the movies selected for The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show were no longer done by either host, and began to deviate from the original horror/science fiction genre into more conventional movie fare  In addition, the start time was again moved in 1996 to Saturdays at midnight following Mad TV, then after Fox debuted Talkshow with Spike Feresten in 2006, the show settled in its final start time of 12:30 a m  Saturday nights/Sunday mornings 
Along with the Saturday night shows, Schodowski and Rinaldi hosted a companion Couch Potato Theater program airing from 10 a m  - noon on Saturday mornings, which featured at various times Three Stooges shorts, episodes of The Abbott and Costello Show, movies, cartoons, or (due to schedule conflicts) an hour long skits only show In December 2006, Schodowski announced he would retire in June 2007   As part of his farewell, WJW broadcast the hour-long retrospective Big Chuck and Lil' John: The End of an Era 
This also marked the end of The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show, with the last regular episode airing the afternoon of June 16, 2007 and again in the early morning of June 17 In October 2008, Schodowski released his autobiography, Big Chuck!: My Favorite Stories from 47 Years on Cleveland TV, co-written by The Plain Dealer media writer Tom Feran  The book debuted at the 2008 Ghoulardifest convention 
During the summer of 2011, it was announced that Big Chuck and Lil' John would return to TV on WJW every Saturday morning at 11 a m  (this time, in a 30-minute all skits show similar to the Couch Potato Theater format)   This version of the show began on September 10, 2011  In 2015, the show was moved to Sunday nights at 11:30 p m  The show moved to Monday mornings at 12:30 a m  in 2021, and as of July 2021 the show has been retitled The Best of Big Chuck and Lil' John and introductions to the skits have been dropped Lil' John made news in December 2014, after Cincinnati Bengals head coach Marvin Lewis referred to Cleveland Browns quarterback Johnny Manziel as a "midget"  WJW sent the 4'3" Rinaldi to Cincinnati to cover Lewis' weekly press conference, and he asked the coach some questions In 2019 the duo reunited with Wells to film the five-episode web series Space Ship One 

Notable sketches and parodies
Ben Crazy - a parody of a popular 60's TV medical drama, Ben Casey with Big Chuck as the title character  Originated on Hoolihan & Big Chuck, but had additional sketches filmed throughout the entire run of Big Chuck & Lil' John 
The Certain Ethnic _____ - a play on Big Chuck's Polish heritage featuring Chuck as "Stash Kowalski" – a stereotypical Polish Clevelander (e g , The Certain Ethnic Motorist, who drives through red traffic lights and stops at green lights)  Big Chuck specifically created the term "certain ethnic" as a euphemism for "Polish" 
The Kielbasa Kid - a parody of TV westerns, with Big Chuck as the bumbling hero  Originated on Hoolihan & Big Chuck 
Readings By Robert - originated on Hoolihan & Big Chuck as a carbon copy of an Ernie Kovacs routine, with Bob Wells in the title role (patterned after Kovacs' "Percy Dovetonsils" character), and Big Chuck as his jazz-ukulele-playing assistant, Carlos  Occasionally rerun throughout the entire run of Big Chuck & Lil' John 
Parma Place - a parody of the 60's soap-opera Peyton Place  Originated on Ghoulardi but was continuously rerun throughout the entire course of Hoolihan & Big Chuck and Big Chuck & Lil' John
Soul Man - a parody of Superman where Big Chuck (as "Ed Tarboosh"  –  mild mannered TV producer) would – with the help of his "soul pills" – become Soul Man, who was a big, black, and bumbling superhero (played by longtime station cameraman Herb Thomas)   Originated on Hoolihan & Big Chuck 
Mary Hartski, Mary Hartski - a parody of the 70's TV show Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman 
Mariano "Mushmouth" Pacetti - king of the weekly "Pizza Fight" during a six-year period on Hoolihan & Big Chuck 
Cuyahoga Jones and the Castle of Doom - a parody of the Indiana Jones series, with Big Chuck as the title character – and Lil' John as his sidekick "Short Stuff" – chronicling their attempts to capture the "Kapusta Diamond"  These skits were filmed at Squire's Castle in suburban Willoughby Hills, Ohio 

Other cast members
Big Chuck and Lil' John would use some of WJW's personalities, like station meteorologist Dick Goddard, in their skits   A popular Goddard sketch revolved around Goddard's claims that WJW had the best doppler radar in Cleveland   He bragged that WJW's "Super Doppler Google-Plex" was powerful enough to see clearly to a neighborhood, close enough to reveal a woman taking a bath (strategically covered with bubbles) through her bathroom sunroof, as Goddard sheepishly tried to hide the image with his suit jacket   Goddard would appear in numerous skits through the years, sometimes even playing different characters Other longtime supporting players were veteran cameraman/technician Art Lofredo, who appeared in many skits through the years (most frequently as "The Old Man") and had several "Art Lofredo Nights" dedicated to him;  Herb Thomas, a longtime station cameraman who portrayed "Soul Man", and Mary Allen ("the pride of Maple Heights"), who was an older lady and was a viewer who had won an auction in the late 70s to appear on a skit   She impressed Big Chuck with her performance so much, she became a regular player on the show until the late 90s, appearing most frequently as Stash Kowalski's wife Stella in "The Certain Ethnic ______" skits News anchor Robin Swoboda was famously featured as the main villain (a Catwoman takeoff) with several Cleveland Browns players portraying her henchmen in "Batguy & Rinaldi" (a parody of Batman & Robin), and sportscasters Casey Coleman, John Telich and Dan Coughlin were used in sports themed skits  Other later skits featured WJW station announcer Bill Ward announcing introductions to skits or for faux testimonial advertisements in the style of Hoolihan 
Owing to the station's long affiliation with the CBS television network, CBS stars like Buddy Ebsen and Andy Griffith made cameos in several skits, as well as Tim Conway (who like Big Chuck began his career on WJW as a sidekick of Ernie Anderson – though on a separate program) who by then was a star on CBS' The Carol Burnett Show  Athletes like Muhammad Ali, Earnie Shavers and Jack Lambert also made guest appearances in skits 

Other show features
Both The Hoolihan and Big Chuck Show and The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show also made music video parodies as well, including Ray Stevens songs like "Gitarzan", "Indian Love Call" (the skit was titled "The Audio Engineer" and made extensive use of chromakey), "Along Came Jones", "The Streak" and "Bridget the Midget" (which was Lil' John's on-air debut on the show back in 1970), plus other songs like Scott McKenzie's "San Francisco", Jimmy Castor Bunch's "Troglodyte", and Larry Groce's "Junk Food Junkie "
Both shows occasionally would feature a "New Talent Time" sketch where Cleveland area performers, usually performing some sort of offbeat stunt, would be featured  One week featured songwriter Robert McGuire performing his original song "Moon Over Parma", a song that mentioned a journey through the suburbs of Cleveland; the song would later become the theme song for the first season of The Drew Carey Show 

Awards and honors
Big Chuck
29-time Lower Great Lakes Emmy Awards recipient
1994 Silver Circle Award, presented by Local Great Lakes Emmy Awards chapter
Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductee (class of 1991)
Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (class of 1999)

Lil' John
1995 Silver Circle Award, presented by Local Great Lakes Emmy Awards chapter
2001 Lower Great Lakes Emmy Award recipient (as co-host of The Big Chuck and Lil' John Show) - Regularly Scheduled Entertainment Program
Ohio Broadcasters Hall of Fame Inductee (class of 1996)
Cleveland Association of Broadcasters Hall of Fame (class of 1999)
Passage 5:
Cleveland Bulldogs
The Cleveland Bulldogs were a team that played in Cleveland, Ohio in the National Football League  They were originally called the Indians in 1923, not to be confused with the Cleveland Indians NFL franchise in 1922  However, after team owner Samuel Deutsch purchased the Canton Bulldogs in 1924, he merged the Canton team with his Indians and renamed his franchise the Cleveland Bulldogs  The Canton Bulldogs remained a part of the team until 1925, when they were sold back to Canton  The Cleveland Bulldogs played in the NFL until 1928 when they were relocated to Detroit and became the Detroit Wolverines  The team was later incorporated into the New York Giants in 1929  The Cleveland Bulldogs won the 1924 NFL championship 

History
Origins
Sam Deutsch, a Cleveland jeweler and boxing promoter who also owned a minor-league baseball team, bought an NFL franchise in 1923 and named the team the Indians  They played only seven games in that first season, but they had a shot at the championship, with a 3–0–3 record going into their final game against the Canton Bulldogs, who were also undefeated  The Indians were defeated 46–0 and posted a 3–1–3 league record, finishing fifth in the league, which comprised twenty teams at the time 

Purchase of the Canton Bulldogs
However, in August 1924, Deutsch, bought the defending NFL champions Canton Bulldogs for $2,500  The Bulldogs were experiencing heavy financial troubles at time and were sold to Deutsch without much of a struggle  Duestch combined the Cleveland Indians with the Canton Bulldogs, creating a new team, the Cleveland Bulldogs  Only seven of the Canton players actually joined the new Bulldogs; among them was player-coach Guy Chamberlin  The team played all of its home games at Dunn Field although Deutsch returned the team to Canton for the Thanksgiving game that season 

1924 NFL champions and controversy
The Cleveland Bulldogs won the NFL championship that year with a 7–1–1 record  After winning their first six games, the Bulldogs lost to the Frankford Yellow Jackets and entered a virtual tie with the Chicago Bears for first place in the standings  The Bears played more games, but also had more ties, and their one loss had come in the season opener against the Bulldogs  The Bears attempted to have an after-season exhibition game counted toward the standings, however in 1924 this was against the NFL's rules  In July 1924, NFL owners had agreed on a proposal that the 1924 NFL season would begin on September 27 and end on November 30  Ironically, as it turned out, the proposal was made by Dutch Sternaman, co-owner of the Bears  On the official end date, Cleveland had a 7–1–1 record to Bears' 6–1–4  Ties didn't count at all in those days, so the Bulldogs were in first place with an  875 winning percentage to Chicago's  857  However, on December 7, 1924 the Bulldogs went to Chicago for a challenge match  The Bears won the game, 23–0, and claimed that they deserved the NFL championship; they cited as precedent the 1921 championship decision (which the Bears had won over the Buffalo All-Americans) that declared there was no such thing as an exhibition game  However, the issue wasn't settled until the owners' meeting in January, when the owners voted for Cleveland to take the title  The owners also decided at that meeting that the 1925 season would run through December 20 

Decline
In 1925, several Canton businessmen purchased the rights to the old Canton Bulldogs team from Deutsch for $3,000  The Bulldogs, now known as the Canton Bulldogs, played in Canton during the 1925 and 1926 seasons  However Deutsch continued to call his Cleveland franchise the Bulldogs  He also sold his Cleveland Indians half of the club to Herb Brandt in August 1925



ground_truth: Fort Davis

prompt_front: Answer the question based on the given passages. Only give me the answer and do not output any other words.

Question: Who did the original voice of the character played by mila kunis in the cleveland show?

The following are given passages.
Context 3:  That season the Cleveland Bulldogs fell to a dismal 5–8–1 record  The team performed poorly on the field and at the bank  By mid-November the organization was nearly bankrupt 

In 1926 Brandt received authority from the league to suspend operations for a year  The Bulldogs then returned in 1927, bolstered by players from the folded Kansas City Cowboys franchise  Deutsch returned as the principal owner of this new Cleveland Bulldogs club  He, along with fellow investors Max Rosenblum, Brandt, Harold Gould, and Clinton Winfrey, built the new Bulldogs around native Clevelander Benny Friedman, a star quarterback at the University of Michigan  The team finished fourth in the National Football League this season, with an 8–4–1 record 

Ties to the New York Giants
At the end of the season, Elliott Fisher purchased the Bulldogs and moved the team to Detroit, renaming them the Detroit Wolverines  The 1928 Wolverines team consisted of 12 former Bulldogs players  Before the 1929 season, Tim Mara, owner of the New York Giants, purchased the entire Wolverines squad, including Benny Friedman, and absorbed the team into his New York Giants franchise  Eight former Bulldogs players ended up playing for the Giants that season 

Pro Football Hall of Famers
Season-by-season
External links
Peterson, Robert W  (1997)  Pigskin: The Early Years of Pro Football  Oxford University Press  ISBN 0-19-511913-4 
Lahman, Sean (2008)  The Pro Football Historical Abstract  The Lyons Press  ISBN 1-59228-940-1 
Ohio History Central: Cleveland Bulldogs
Encyclopedia of Cleveland History: Cleveland Bulldogs
Passage 6:
Black Swan dance double controversy
The Black Swan dance double controversy concerns an American film and the credit its production gave to performers  Black Swan is a 2010 American psychological horror film about a ballerina directed by Darren Aronofsky and starring Natalie Portman, Vincent Cassel, and Mila Kunis  After the 83rd Academy Awards, where Portman won Best Actress for her performance in the film as a ballerina, controversy arose over how much credit for the dancing in the film was being given to her and how much to her "dance double", American Ballet Theatre soloist Sarah Lane In a March 3, 2011 blog post (written prior to the DVD release) for Dance Magazine, its editor-in-chief Wendy Perron asked why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's had been available online but was removed prior to the Oscars  She also speculated as to whether Portman's omission of Lane's name during her acceptance speech was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" It was also noted that Lane is credited as "Lady in the Lane" and as "Stunts" rather than as Portman's double in the theatrical release of the film  This led to a number of responses regarding Portman  Aronofsky and Fox Searchlight issued a joint statement, arguing: "We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did  However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film " Benjamin Millepied and Kunis also argued in defense of Portman's dancing  Lane responded through an essay published in The Wall Street Journal (Portman declined through a representative to write one as well) and an interview on 20/20 that her interest lies primarily in defense of ballet as an art form that cannot be mastered in a year 
The DVD of Black Swan was released on March 29, 2011 and includes the featurette with Sarah Lane 

Before the Academy Awards
The film's director Darren Aronofsky stated in a July 2010 interview: "Most of these women who are here started dancing when they were 4, 5, or 6 years old  Their bodies are shaped differently because they started so young  She was able to pull it off  Except for the wide shots when she has to be en pointe for a real long time, it's Natalie on screen  I haven't used her double a lot " Another time when asked whether Portman did all the dancing, he replied "Not everything, but a lot of it  That shot, in the opening prologue when she walks off into the light and she’s flapping her wings, and she’s on pointe, that is 100%, untouched, no digital Natalie Portman  When the camera pulls out on her and she’s on top of the ramp and she’s bleeding, and she’s on pointe, right before she jumps—that is Natalie Portman en pointe" In a November 29, 2010 interview, Portman's other dance double, Kimberly Prosa, also added: "Natalie took class, she studied for several months, from the waist up is her  Sarah Lane a soloist at ABT, did the heavy tricks, she did the fouettés, but they only had her for a limited time, a couple of weeks, so I did the rest of whatever dance shots they needed " In addition, Portman said in an interview with MSN: "I did everything, and the dance double — Sarah Lane, who's a really wonderful dancer — they shot us both doing everything, but because most of the film is in close-up, they're able to use me  The parts I couldn't do were because it's doing very complicated turns en pointe  They would shoot me doing it in flat shoes and Sarah doing it in pointe shoes and find a way to make that work " She also stated in a November 2010 interview with WBUR that "there's a wonderful dancer, Sarah Lane, who did the more complicated pointe work  But I did the stuff that was possible to learn in a year "In December 2010, Lane also gave an interview to Kina Poon of Dance Magazine in which she responds to the question "and how does it feel to be part of a performance that some critics are giving Natalie Portman rave reviews for?" by saying that "I'm not really looking for any sort of recognition  The process was a huge learning experience and I got everything I wanted out of it  But [Portman] deserves the recognition  She worked really hard " Lane's involvement in Black Swan was also mentioned in two other dance magazines and in an article on The New York Times website 

Perron's blog
After the Oscar ceremony on February 27, 2011 in which Portman won the Academy Award for Best Actress and where she thanked many people but did not mention Lane, dancer and editor-in-chief of Dance Magazine Wendy Perron published a March 3, 2011 blog post in which she asks why a visual effects video clip showing Lane's face being replaced by Portman's was once available online but later removed from the Internet prior to the Oscars  She also speculates as to whether Portman deliberately did not mention Lane, by asking if this was a case of "forgetfulness in the heat of the moment? Or was this omission, and the deletion from the video, planned by the studio's publicity machine?" Perron also asks, "Do people really believe that it takes only one year to make a ballerina? We know that Natalie Portman studied ballet as a kid and had a year of intensive training for the film, but that doesn't add up to being a ballerina  However, it seems that many people believe that Portman did her own dancing in Black Swan "Perron followed up the next week with a second blog post on the subject  She interviewed Lane, who states that she did not expect to be named during Portman's acceptance speech because a Fox Searchlight producer had asked her to stop giving interviews until after the Oscars were over: "They were trying to create this façade that [Portman] had become a ballerina in a year and a half     So I knew they didn't want to publicize anything about me " Perron then states that Lane "says she was more offended by that myth than any slight to her as a dancer who worked 'painstaking' hours on the set  She says she's talked to her colleagues about 'how unfortunate it is that, as professional dancers, we work so hard, but people can actually believe that it's easy enough to do it in a year  That's the thing that bothered me the most "

Aftermath
Millepied
Benjamin Millepied (Portman's husband and a principal dancer from New York City Ballet who debuted in Black Swan as both actor and choreographer) responded to Perron's blog in a March 23 interview with the Los Angeles Times  He states in this interview that "there are articles now talking about her dance double [American Ballet Theatre dancer Sarah Lane] that are making it sound like [Lane] did a lot of the work, but really, she just did the footwork, and the fouettés, and one diagonal [phrase] in the studio  Honestly, 85% of that movie is Natalie "

Lane
Lane was then asked about the subject in a March 25 interview with Entertainment Weekly to which she responded that "of the full body shots, I would say 5 percent are Natalie     All the other shots are me " In a later interview with Christopher John Farley of The Wall Street Journal, Lane states that   

I did all of the dancing  Natalie and I alternated shots  They would do close-up shots with her, just of her face and kind of from her arms up  Then they would do the same shot with me, and then they would do a full body shot from far away, or a close-up of my feet, etc  And then there were a few shots they did that were closer full body shots and then they digitally put her face on my body 
This happened, she states, because only someone who has had years of training is able to perform in this manner  On the subject of whether she was being credited as she "deserves", she said, "Definitely not" and elaborates   

It was all my fault really because I didn't have a manager     When I was going to sign my contract, it said on screen credit is up to the producer's discretion      So I signed the contract and I left it  I thought they would kind of take care of me because they were really encouraging and really sweet and always saying how amazing I was  They were kind of rooting me on when I would have to do shots that were really hard and almost impossible even for a professional ballet dancer 
However, she states that her response to the issue of credit is being misrepresented as it is "kind of making me look greedy"  Instead she was actually responding to Perron's blog about the possibility of a "cover-up" and wanted to clarify that "I do want people to know that you cannot absolutely become a professional ballet dancer in a year and a half no matter how hard you work  I've been doing this for 22 years " Lane also reiterates that she was asked by producers to stop giving interviews until after the Oscars were over and as to why she thinks that happened, explained:

I had read a lot of articles that Natalie had done where she said she did 90 percent of the dancing  And never mentioned my name once  Nobody ever mentioned my name hardly ever  I'm not stupid, I got the idea that they really want to make it look like she [Portman] had accomplished something incredible 
Lane continued, "I do want people to know that she did work really hard  And she lost a lot of weight so that if you looked at her, you would say she could pass from the arms up as a dancer  She's an amazing actor  I can't act like that  But to say that she did all of the dancing is absolutely ridiculous to anyone that knows anything about ballet "

Aronofsky and Fox Searchlight
In response, people involved with the film (particularly Aronofsky) and Fox Searchlight disputed Lane's claim  They released statements that stated: "We were fortunate to have Sarah there to cover the more complicated dance sequences and we have nothing but praise for the hard work she did  However, Natalie herself did most of the dancing featured in the final film " Aronofsky stated in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:

I had my editor count shots  There are 139 dance shots in the film  111 are Natalie Portman untouched  28 are her dance double Sarah Lane  If you do the math, that's 80% Natalie Portman  What about duration? The shots that feature the double are wide shots and rarely play for longer than one second  There are two complicated longer dance sequences that we used face replacement  Even so, if we were judging by time, over 90% would be Natalie Portman  And to be clear, Natalie did dance on pointe in pointe shoes  If you look at the final shot of the opening prologue, which lasts 85 seconds, and was danced completely by Natalie, she exits the scene on pointe  That is completely her without any digital magic  I am responding to this to put this to rest and to defend my actor  Natalie sweated long and hard to deliver a great physical and emotional performance  And I don't want anyone to think that's not her they are watching  It is 

Kunis
Mila Kunis, Portman's co-star in the film, also gave an interview with Entertainment Weekly in which she said, "Natalie danced her ass off" and that "[Portman will] tell you [that], no, she was not on pointe when she did a fouetté [turn]  No one's going to deny that  But she did do every ounce of every one of her dances      [Lane] wasn't used for everything  It was more like a safety net  If Nat wasn't able to do something, you'd have a safety net  The same thing that I had — I had a double as a safety net  We all did  No one ever denied it" 

Perron
In an email exchange with Farley published on March 28 in The Wall Street Journal, Wendy Perron stated, "the publicity department for Fox Searchlight, the studio behind the film, is just 'doing its job' in promoting Portman's work"  She also noted: "'Natalie did most of the dancing where you see her in closeup, and she worked hard to make them convincing', Perron said via email  'Obviously, the far shots plus the pirouettes and closeups on the feet were Sarah or another double '"

Lane and Portman further responses
Lane The Wall Street Journal essay
On March 30, The Wall Street Journal published an essay by Lane on the subject  (It had asked both Portman and Lane to write about these events, but Portman declined through a representative ) Lane's essay, "My (Double) Life as A Black Swan", describes the life of a ballet dancer and concludes by stating:

I know that some people are getting very defensive about Black Swan and my role in it, but back-stabbing is not my purpose when people ask me about the legitimacy of the dance shots in the movie  I only care to speak the truth  The truth is that no one, not Natalie Portman, or even myself can come anywhere close to the level of a professional ballerina in a year and a half  Period  That doesn't mean that I don't admire Natalie and her acting  She is so talented and can inspire people, as well, with her own art form  She did an amazing job portraying her character in Black Swan  (Though the movie wasn't a completely realistic reflection of ballet or dancers ) My only wish is that Natalie, Darren, and certain others who worked closely on the movie could have grasped the beauty and the heart of true ballet  If they had, they would have advocated for this art more and given the real dancers the credit that they deserve 

Portman E! interview
In an April 6 interview with E!, Natalie Portman responded to the question: "What do you want to say to people who are questioning your dancing in the film?" by stating: "I had a chance to make something beautiful with this film and I don't want to give in to the gossip"  She also said, "I know what went on  We had an amazing experience making the movie  I don't want to tarnish it by entering into nastiness      I'm really proud of everyone's work on the movie and of my experience  And I'll have that forever  So it's nice for me to always know about that, no matter what kind of nastiness or gossip is going around " In response to a question regarding her Oscar acceptance speech, Portman responded, "I don't remember my Oscar speech at all, and I'm actually too embarrassed to watch it "

Lane 20/20 interview
In an April 15 interview with Elizabeth Vargas for ABC's 20/20, Lane stated: "I didn't really specify anything in my contract about getting onscreen credit or anything     I didn't do the movie to get fame or recognition or anything " She added, "I'm not speaking because I feel like I should be heralded      I'm speaking because [the filmmakers] are completely lying about the amount of dancing Natalie did in the movie  When those incorrect things are coming out, and they threaten the entire principle of ballet, then I feel like I need to say something " When Vargas asked if it is possible that both interpretations of the "math" can be correct, Lane responded: "It's possible, like I said, if you're counting the close-ups of her face as actual dancing shots  But I don't call close-ups of her face actual dancing "20/20 also asked Black Swan editor Andy Weisblum for his take on the math  He responded that "there are about 35 shots that are full body shots in the movie  Of those 35 shots, 12 are Natalie, and then the rest are Sarah  But over the overall film, Natalie did a lot more than that  I mean, she did most of the other shots  It was sometimes hard for me to tell the difference as the editor, it was so close " Lane further reiterated the point that prior to the Oscar ceremony, she gave an interview with Glamour for an article titled The Real Black Swan  After this interview, a Black Swan producer contacted her: "He asked if I would please not do any more interviews until after the Oscars because it was bad for Natalie's image     They were trying to create this image, this facade, really, that Natalie had done something extraordinary  Something that is pretty much impossible     to become a professional ballerina in a year and half " Lane also emphasized that her criticism was not directed at Portman's acting: "I think she is a really beautiful actress     I loved working with her  And she was really focused on her character every day  I definitely think she deserves all the credit that she got with the Oscar "

Dance Channel TV Network interview
In another interview for the Dance Channel network, Lane was asked, "Looking back and having experienced what you had and deciding to talk about what happened, would you do Black Swan again?" Her answer was, "Yeah, I would "



ground_truth: Lacey Chabert