You already know that one of the league's best-known records -- consecutive game hitting streak -- was broken for the second time in two years. But did you know what other records fell this season, or at least were challenged? The ones that were broken, either DMB Era or all-time, are listed in green, while the records that were tied or otherwise challenged are listed in red.

Batting Records

The consecutive game hitting streak record was the only all-time batting record broken this year, but a DMB Era (1997-present) record was smashed as well. In addition, several records were challenged.

Hitting Streak: Newark's Jim Eisenreich set the all-time record in 1997 by hitting in 32 straight games. Several players came close over the next seven years, but no one surpassed it until Ichiro Suzuki did him one better with a 33-game hitting streak last year. But Ichiro's record is already history, as Marietta's Morgan Ensberg connected for a hit in an amazing 38 straight games this year. Unlike Eisenreich and Suzuki -- two of the purest hitters in league history, who each set DMB Era record for most hits in a season the year of their streak -- Ensberg hit just .273 this year. On the other hand, unlike the slap-happy Eisenreich and Suzuki, Ensbeg also slammed 42 homers and knocked in 122 runs this year.

Games Played: Due to the unprecedented three-team tie for 6th place, the Golden Falcons reached the post-season after beating first Philly, then Hillsborough, in back-to-back one-game playoffs. Arkansas is therefore the only team in league history to play a 164-game schedule, and Lance Berkman was the only player to see action in all 164 games. But wait! He merely tied the record set last year by Rafael Furcal. Furcal played in every one Philly's games -- 109 -- before being traded to Carolina. He then played every game for the Mudcats, which, through a quirk in the scheduling, had at that point played two less games than the Endzone Animals, giving Furcal 164 for the season.

Doubles: Philly's Brian Roberts smashed 67 doubles this year, falling just short of the all-time record of 69 set by Jerusalem's Terry Shumpert in 2000. The 67 doubles are tied for second-most all time with Albert Belle and Ryan Klesko, who each hit that mark in '96.

Triples: Of course nobody came close to the all-time single season record of 62 triples, set by Deion Sanders in 1993, but the DMB Era triples record did fall for the second straight year. D.C.'s Jose Reyes legged out 24 three-baggers, just edging Carl Crawford's 23 last year. The previous record was 20, set in '02 by Juan Uribe.

Stolen Bases: This record looked to be a goner as Las Vegas's Chone Figgins had 42 stolen bases in the first 80 games of the season, a pace that would give him 85 stolen bases and surpass the all-time record of 78 set by Kenny Lofton in 1997. But he ended the season with "just" 68 -- the fourth-highest total of all time and the most in five years. But what happened? It wasn't that Figgins stopped running; he just had less opportunities. At the break, Figgins was hitting .352 with a .422 OBP; over the second half, he hit just .250 with a .294 OBP... Westwood/D.C. shortstop Jose Reyes led the league with an .853 SB% (29-for-34), but that was 4 caught stealings too many to cach the record set last year by Bobby Abreu (29-for-30, .967 SB%).

Strikeouts: Jonny Gomes had a heckuva year between Las Vegas and Marietta (.276, .896 OPS, 42 HR, 100 R, 110 RBI) -- actually, mostly in Marietta (.335, 1.158 OPS, 23 HR, 44 R, 68 RBI in 51 games). But he also whiffed a whopping 205 times, the sixth-highest total in the DMB Era. The all-time record, which may be even safer than Neon Deion's ridiculous 62 triples in a single season, is 357 strikeouts, set by Rob Deer in 1993. The modern record of 232 Ks was set in 1999, by Mark McGwire. McGwire had 46 HR, 121 RBI and 121 R that year, proving -- like Gomes this year -- that a player can still be productive even with tons of strikeouts.

Pitching Records

Several obscure records fell this season, particularly in categories that we've only tracked since 1998, when the DMB Era was in full bloom. Note that for "rate" categories (ERA, H/9, etc.), the minimum is 162.0 IP, as per MLB.

Wins, Winning Percentage: Newark's John Smoltz easily led the league with a 22-5 record, which tied for third-most all-time (five other pitchers have had 22-win seasons) and is the most wins by a pitcher in five years... Greg Maddux holds the all-time record, with 26 wins (against just 4 losses) in '98; he's also second, with a 23-7 record in '96. If you use losses as the tie-breaker, Maddux would also hold third place, as he went 22-4 in '97; Smoltz's '06 campaign would tie with Kevin Brown '00 and Sid Fernandez '94 at 22-5 for fourth... Vancouver's Jake Peavy just edged Smoltz, .818 (18-4) to .815, for the league's best winning percentage (minimum 15 decisions). Peavy's W% ranks 8th all-time, while Smoltz's is tied for 9th; the all-time league record is held by Pedro Martinez, who went an astonishing 21-2 (.913 W%) in 2002.

Earned Run Average: Arkansas's Roger Clemens posted a 2.51 ERA this year, easily leading the league -- second place was more than a half-run higher. But he didn't come close to the all-time record of 1.91, set by Sid Fernandez in 1994; nor the DMB Era record of 2.08, set in 2004 by Tim Hudson. In fact, Clemens's ERA, while impressive, ties only for sixth-lowest in the modern era.

Hits Per 9, Batting Average Against: However, Roger Clemens did set a DMB Era record -- fewest hits per 9 innings pitched. (Hey, it may be an obscure record, but it's still a record!) Clemens allowed just 144 hits in 208.0 IP, a 6.2 H/9 (or if you prefer, a .190 batting average against). That just edged the previous modern record of 6.3 H/9 (.195 BAA) set by Tim Wakefield in 2003 as well as Pedro Martinez's .192 batting average against in '01. We only have BAA data going back to 1998, but the all-time record for R/9 is held by Nolan Ryan, who allowed just 6.1 hits per 9 innings pitched (154 hits, 227.0 IP) in 1992.

Walks Per 9: One of the few all-time records set this year was by Hoboken's Carlos Silva, who allowed just 18 walks in 243.2 innings -- a microscopic 0.7 walks per 9 innings pitched. That beat out Bob Tewksbury's 0.8 BB/9 in 1993 (23 BB, 248.0 IP) as well as Greg Maddux's modern record of 0.9 BB/9 in 2002 (24 BB, 229.0 IP).

WHIP, R/9, OBP Allowed: Most educated baseball fans prefer baserunners per 9 (which includes HBP), or OBP allowed (which accounts for HBP and sac flies). But data from the early years of the league is spotty, so we'll have to make due with WHIP -- walks plus hits divided by innings pitched. The league leader this year is Arkansas's Roger Clemens, who posted an 0.94, which actually ranks third-best all-time, behind Pedro Martinez's league record of 0.86 in '01, and Dennis Eckersley's 0.91 in '92. (Eckersley was a reliever, but he pitched an astounding 163.0 innings, so he qualifies.) If you want to talk about R/9, we'd have to limit our discussion to the DMB Era. In that case, Clemens's league-best 8.6 R/9 this year is second-best behind Martinez's 8.2 in '01. Going by OBP, for which we only have data from 1998 on, Clemens's .242 is second behind, again, Pedro in '01 (.235).

SLG Allowed, HR/9: Again, we only have data from '98 on, but for that period, Roger Clemens set a new record with a .299 SLG this year, beating the old mark of .307 set by Derek Lowe in '00. In addition, Zach Duke, who pitched for Westwood and Newark this year, tied for the seventh-lowest HR/9 since 1998 (0.5). The record is 0.2 HR/9, set by Pedro Martinez in 2000.

OPS, RC/27, etc.: Roger Clemens rewrote the record book when it came to little-known analytical stats we've tracked only since 1998. And in each case, he beat out Derek Lowe's 2000 campaign. Clemens is now first in OPS Allowed (.541, was .569); RC/27 outs (2.3, was 2.5); runs created ERA (2.13, 2.25); component ERA (1.90, was 2.11); and TB+BB+HBP rate (.343, was .352).

Holds, Blown Saves, Inherited Runners: Perhaps the most irrelevant and useless stat since the Game-Winning RBI, the hold may not mean much to most fans, but it does to Tim Worrell, who set the league record (since 1998) with 24. The record was challenged by not one but two players this year -- Hillsborough's Kyle Farnsworth, who had the second-most in history with 23, and Marietta's Trevor Hoffman, who tied for third all-time with 22... Holds may be a record nobody cares about, but blown saves are a record nobody wants. Phoenix's Tyler Walker came close, tying for second all time with 12 blown saves... Finally, a positive relief statistic: Inherited Runners Scored! Most relievers consider stranding inherited runners their top priority, so this is an important, if often overlooked, statistic. We only have data from '98 on, but for that time period, Hoboken's Neal Cotts ranks second with a .091 IRS% (33 IR, 3 IRS). The record was set last year by Phoenix's Troy Percival, who allowed just 2 out of 27 inherited runners to score (.074 IRS%).

Team Records

No major marks were set, several ongoing records were extended.

Playoff Appearances (Total, Consecutive): The Arkansas Golden Falcons may have squeaked into the playoffs, but it still counts as their 14th post-season appearance, extending their own league record. (Vancouver is second with 12; Newark is third with 11.) The Golden Falcons have been in the post-season every year since '92, so the 14 consecutive post-seasons also is a new league record. (Newark is second, with 11 in a row, an active streak they extended this season. Vancouver and the Austin Outlaws are tied for third, with nine in a row, streaks that have since ended.)

Division Titles (Total, Consecutive): The Newark Sugar Bears won their ninth division championship and their sixth title in a row, extending two league records they set last year. The Golden Falcons are second, with seven division titles; the Ironfist are third, with six. Each previously had a run of four straight division titles.

Commissioner's Cups: The Newark Sugar Bears also won the Commissioner's Cup, which goes to the team with the best regular season record. It's their fourth Commissioner's Cup, which ties Arkansas and Vancouver for the most all-time. (Austin has two; Jerusalem has one.) It's also Newark's second straight cup, tying Austin for second-most in a row; Vancouver holds the record, with four straight from '94 to '98.

Wins, Losses (Total, Home, Road): The Newark Sugar Bears' 111-51 record is tied for fourth-best in league history, behind the '02 Golden Falcons (120-42), the '97 Ironfist (118-44) and the '98 Ironfist (112-50) and alongside their own '03 campaign (111-51). Unfortunately for the Sugar Bears, none of those teams won the World Series that year!... Newark's 62-19 home record ranks second all-time, behind only the '02 Golden Falcons (64-17). The Sugar Bears' 49-32 road record also was tops in the league, but didn't come close to the record (Vancouver '97, 60-21)... The Honolulu Sharks led the league with 104 losses, which actually looks pretty good compared to the 33-129 posted in 1993 by the Waikiki Keys. In fact, the Keys were even worse than it would appear, since they lost 129 games in a 154-game season (.204 W%)... The D.C. Bushslappers went 19-62 on the road, which is the second-worst performance since woeful Waikiki set the record in '93 (16-69)... The Phoenix Dragons' league-worst 30-51 home record didn't come close to Waikiki's 17-60 in 1993.

Did You Know that Gregg Jefferies set the record for most DMBL franchises played for when he retired in 1999? The former Columbia Crusader, Arkansas Golden Falcon, Waikiki Key, Jerusalem Rabbi, Honolulu Shark, Carolina Mudcat, Newark Sugar Bear, Hawaii Volcano and Vancouver Iron Fist also has the distinction of having played for all three franchises located in the 50th state. Jefferies hit .283 (.734 OPS) in 2,392 at bats over eight DMBL seasons. Click Here for past articles.