21.   Cleveland manager Mike Hargrove felt good going to his bullpen, and a victory seemed all but assured going into the final inning with Mesa on the mound.

22.   Even as the war neared its end and victory seemed assured, optimism mingled with doubt.

23.   For all the talk of history being made, the victory seemed a rather hollow one.

24.   Given the carefully timed endorsements of Tung, his victory seems assured.

25.   He has tightened the race in Georgia and California, two states where election day victories once seemed improbable.

26.   If Brown felt poorly before the game, the victory seemed a tonic for him.

27.   In both games, victory seemed hopelessly out of reach.

28.   In any of these cases, a victory can seem Pyrrhic.

29.   In truth, victory seemed inevitable from the beginning.

30.   Such a victory seemed too big, too historic to be accidental, and Israelis, even the most secular, came to weep and pray.