You may have known that the Honolulu Sharks are in the midst of a five-game winning streak to propel them to the fourth-best record in baseball. But Did you know how many win/loss streaks there have been this year?

There have been 34 streaks of 5+ wins or losses, including three streaks of 10+ games. That's exactly twice as many as there were at this point last year (17)! In addition to Honolulu's active win streak, there are three other mini-streaks going: the Wanaque Wolverines and Stanhope Mighty Men have lost three straight, while the Carolina Mudcats have won three in a row.

So far, teams have put together 19 win streaks and 16 losing streaks, with the longest owned by the Newark Sugar Bears (11 straight wins) and Carolina (11 straight losses).

Longest Winning Streaks

11: Newark (3/8-3/19)

10: Arkansas (4/7-4/18)

7: Arkansas (4/30-5/7), Newark (4/30-5/6), Newark (4/4-4/11), Wanaque (3/28-4/3)

6: Columbia (4/24-4/30), Hoboken (4/12-4/18), Hoboken (4/4-4/10), Arkansas (3/19-3/25), Tijuana (3/11-3/17)

5: Honolulu* (began 5/5), Honolulu (4/24-4/29), Arkansas (4/20-4/24), Carolina (4/19-4/24), Philadelphia (4/18-4/22), Newark (3/28-4/2), Newark (3/22-3/26), Vancouver (3/19-3/25), Brooklyn (3/9-3/14), Arkansas (3/6-3/12)

*Active streak

Longest Losing Streaks

11: Carolina (3/12-3/23)

7: Brooklyn (4/29-5/6), Harrison (3/28-4/4)

6: Tijuana (4/6-4/12), Harrison (4/6-4/11), Stanhope (4/4-4/10), Stanhope (3/9-3/15)

5: Carolina (5/1-5/5), Harrison (4/28-5/2), Honolulu (4/19-4/23), Harrison (4/14-4/18), Philadelphia (3/30-4/3), Hoboken (3/29-4/3), Phoenix (3/12-3/17), Vancouver (3/11-3/16), Columbia (3/4-3/9)

More Did You Know?

The Arkansas Golden Falcons put together five win streaks of 3+ games in March, going 21-3 between March 6 and April 4. During the streak, the Falcons never lost back-to-back games. After cooling off with two losses in a row to the Vancouver Iron Fist on April 5 and 6, the Falcons won another 10 straight.

At the other end of the spectrum, the Harrison Rats had four losing streaks of 4+ games in April, never winning back-to-back games between March 28 and April 24. The Rats went 3-22 over the stretch. After finally winning three in a row from the Brooklyn Bean Counters, April 25 to 27, the Rats dropped five straight.

Until their current streak began this week, the Sharks had just two streaks of 5+ games, and they were back-to-back! After dropping five straight, April 19 to 23, Honolulu won its next five, April 24 to 29.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Rats have endured several losing skids en route to the worst record in baseball. Harrison has had four losing streaks of 5+ games, totaling 23 losses. Carolina and Stanhope have each had two losing streaks, with the Mudcats dropping 16 games and the Mighty Men 12 over their skids. Arkansas, Newark and Wanaque are the only teams to have so far avoided a lengthy losing streak.

You may have known that Stanhope's Mariano Rivera is among the all-time DMBL leaders in saves. But Did you know he recently passed Dennis Eckersley to move up within the top 10 in all-time appearances?

Not only did Mariano Rivera record back-to-back saves March 7-8 to help Stanhope sweep a three-game series from Harrison, he also tied Dennis Eckersley for 8th all time in appearances at 346 games. He pitched the final 1 2/3 innings to save a 6-4 win March 8 and matched Eck. Rivera passed him when he mopped up the final 1 2/3 of a 14-3 loss to Tijuana on March 14.

With three saves on the season so far, Rivera has moved within a save of all-time leader Roberto Hernandez, formerly of Tijuana. The top four saves leaders, including Trevor Hoffman of Arkansas and Troy Percival of Phoenix, all are active though so there surely will be plenty of jockeying throughout the season.

Larry Walker's third home run of the season, leading off Tuesday's 7-1 Arkansas win over Honolulu off Russ Ortiz, was the 250th of his career. The top 10 is still full of active players, except Albert Belle, who is 7th with 266. By the time Walker passes Belle, he won't be the only one: Vancouver's Jeff Bagwell began the season tied with Belle but has yet to hit one out. Hoboken's Mike Piazza and Harrison's Rafael Palmeiro were 10 and 11 behind Belle, respectively.

It took Gary Sheffield of Harrison the ninth game of the year to put one over the fence, but it was No. 200 lifetime. It came the same day as Walker's 250th and it was dramatic: a three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth off Philly's Jose Mesa to tie the game 7-7. Philly went on to win in 13 innings, 13-7.

Luis Gonzalez became the first of player of what could be as many as half a dozen to reach the century mark in terms of career home runs. The Phoenix outfielder connected on No. 100 Saturday against Tijuana, his fifth of the season.

When Bob Wickman blew a save for Carolina on March 7, it broke a logjam near the bottom of the all time top 10 in blown saves; but only for the moment. Nine of the closers in the top 12 not only are still active, but many are still closers. Wickman started the year tied for 10th with Jose Mesa of Philly and Honolulu's Ugueth Urbina with 20 blown saves. With his first blown save, however, he tied Armando Benitez, who's in Philly's bullpen this season, with 21. Mesa joined the two when he was saddled with a blown save when he gave up Sheffield's milestone dinger. The first one to 22 will match John Wettleland for 8th on the list.

Vancouver's Edgar Martinez ended the week with 11 RBIs for the season, 5 coming in Sunday's 8-2 win over Stanhope, but also 890 for his career, just one behind Belle for 8th on the all-time list. One would expect the DH to pass Belle during the Iron Fist's road trip this week, in Stanhope Monday or in Columbia for a three-game set through Thursday. Trailing only league leader Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa has 15 RBIs and should soon pass Belle as well, as he continues to chase teammate Edgar. The two started the year 8th and 9th, respectively, on the all-time RBI list, just 17 apart.

You may have known that the Newark Sugar Bears had a "Johnson & Johnson" pitching battery of Randy and Charles. But Did You Know which last name will be shared by the most DMBL-eligible players next season?

It's not Johnson and it's not Smith. But it's not Martinez, Rodriguez or any -ez! The most popular surname in 2002 is a tie between two All-American classics: Anderson and Williams. Each features six unrelated players sharing the same last name with enough appearances to qualify for DMBL rosters next season.

The amazing Andersons are Brady, Brian, Garret, Jimmy, Marlon and Matt; the wonderful Williamses are Bernie, Dave, Gerald, Matt, Mike and Woody. Coming up through the minors are two more, Jeff and Todd, but they're not eligible in 2002.

Last year, both names were tied for fourth for most popular name, with five each. The leading surname last season was a three-way tie between Hernandez, Jones and Martinez, all with six. Hernandez fell to five names (Jose, Livan, Orlando, Ramon and Roberto) and there also are five players named Jones (Andruw, Bobby J., Chipper, Jacque and Todd). Martinez fell all the way to four players, with Edgar, Pedro, Ramon and Tino.

What was the most popular last name in the majors in 2001, regardless of DMBL eligibility?

You've heard of Charles, Jason and Randy, but did you know there were eight other Johnsons on major league rosters last season? Adam, Brian, Jonathan, Mark (I), Mark (II), Mike, Nick and Russ bring the total to 11 players named Johnson, but only the "Big Three" are eligible for DMBL.

Other popular names next season:

Vatican City Destroyers

How "Hillsborough" were the 2001 Vatican City Cardinals? After all, the team changed more than just its home city and nickname: GM Jeremy Berger replaced Scott Boehler, who sold the team after three years in the league.

But of the six playoff teams, the Hillsborough-Vatican City franchise actually tied for second when it came to holding onto its players, with 14 members -- 10 batters and four pitchers -- from the 2000 Destroyers still on their 2001 roster. In fact, 11 players from the 1999 Destroyers and seven from the 1998 squad are still with the team. Tim Salmon has been with the franchise since 1994 -- when they were the Cheyenne Warhawks. Salmon has only played for one DMBL franchise, but four owners!

The most stable roster was Arkansas, which returned 15 players return from last season. Newark and Vancouver also kept 14 players from the 2000 post-season, and the Carolina Mudcats kept just 10 players from last year's 103-loss team. The Stanhope Mighty Men made the biggest overhaul, shaking up the clubhouse with three of the year's biggest trades. Stanhope's 2001 post-season roster included just nine players from Jerusalem's World Champion 2000 squad.

The Hillsborough Destroyers, the worst team in the league at 51-111, were bought by a new owner last year and moved to Vatican City. The newly-christened Cardinals went 89-73 -- an improvement of 38 wins from the previous season. But it's only the league's second-best turn-around. The 1993-1994 Waikiki Keys went from a horrendous 33-129 (the worst season in DMBL history) to a merely mediocre 76-86, an improvement of 43 games. The third-best improvement in league history belongs to the 1992 San Antonio Gun Slingers, who went from 54-96 (as the Maine Lobsters) to 91-71, an improvement of 37 games. The Carolina Mudcats have the sixth-best turn-around, from 59-103 to 82-80 this season, a 23-win improvement.

The Louisiana Lightning were 66-96 in 1994, but would improve to 109-53 two seasons later. That gain of 43 games only ties the Waikiki Keys' single-season record, however. In fact, even over a three-year period, no team has ever improved by 43 games. (Of course, no team has ever won just 33 games in a season, either.) The 1997-1999 Norfolk Ewes/Hillsborough Destroyers had the most improvement over three years, picking up 20 wins in 1997, 5 games in 1998 and 9 in 1999, for a 34-win gain (47-115 in 1996 to 81-81 in 1999), only to give almost all of it back with a 51-111 record in 2000. The only team to post an improved record for four straight years are the 1997-2000 Jerusalem Rabbis, who picked up 15, 12, 4 and 5 wins in consecutive seasons, climbing from 67-95 in 1996 to 103-59 in 2000 for a gain of 36 wins. The streak ended this year, as the team won 17 games less than in 2000.

No team has ever gone from "worst to first," although the 1996 Newark Sugar Bears had the best record in baseball (106-56) in their first year of existence. But the Mudcats and Cardinals did set a record this year: They're the first two teams in league history to go from sub-.500 to the playoffs, and also posted the biggest gains in terms of the standings (Vatican City jumped from 14th place in 2000 to 3rd this year, and the Mudcats went from 13th place to 6th). The Gun Slingers went from last place (in a six-team league) in 1991 to third place (in a seven-team league) in 1992, but only the top two teams went to the playoffs that year.

Only two teams won the World Series the year after not reaching the post-season. The 1991 Arkansas Golden Falcons and the 1992 Vancouver Iron Fist both posted winning records, but didn't reach the playoffs; both came back to win the World Series the following year. Remarkably, for both teams, the year before the championship were their only non-post-season appearances.