Prince William Pirates Carolina League Baseball

Prince William Pirates

Carolina League (1984-1986)

Tombstone

Born: July 11, 1983 – The Alexandria Dukes announce relocation plans to Woodbridge, VA1ASSOCIATED PRESS. “Alexandria Dukes Moving Away From District Area”. The Daily Times (Salisbury, MD). July 12, 1983
Re-Branded: September 1986 (Prince William Yankees)2Staff & Wire Reports. “FANFARE: Yankees Join CL”. The Morning Herald (Durham, NC). September 20, 1986

First Game: April 11, 1984 (W 4-3 @ Lynchburg Mets at Norfolk, VA)
Last Game: August 31, 1986 (W 4-3 @ Hagerstown Suns)

Carolina League Championships: None

Stadium

Ownership & Affiliation

Owner: Alexandria Baseball Club, Inc. (Community Stockholders, Doug Bergere President – 1986)

Major League Affiliation: Pittsburgh Pirates

Attendance

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Source: The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball (3rd ed.), Lloyd Johnson & Miles Wolff, 2007

 

Background

The Prince William Pirates were the Class A farm club of the Pittsburgh in the Carolina League from 1984 through 1986.  The ball club originated in 1978 as an expansion team in nearby Alexandia, Virginia known as the Alexandria Dukes. In Alexandria, the team played in a truly crummy little stadium called Four Mile Run Park. Midway through the 1983 season, Dukes President Eugene Thomas announced that his team would relocate to Prince William County, Virginia for the 1984 season, where local officials approved funding for a modern 6,000-seat ballpark.

Notable Names

Key players to come through Prince William during the Pirates era included Barry Bonds, who appeared in 71 games in 1985 in his first year of pro ball as a 1st round draft pick out of Arizona State University.  Future Major League All-Stars Bobby Bonilla (3B) and John Smiley (P) also played for the 1985 Prince William squad.  (Smiley would also return in 1986).

Heading the other direction, Joe Charbonneau wound down his injury-plagued career with Prince William in 1984. Charbonneau was the 1980 American League Rookie-of-the-Year with the Cleveland Indians, but never played a full season in the Majors again. At age 29, Charbonneau was the oldest player in the Carolina League in 1984. He hit. 289 and earned a promotion to the Pirates Class AAA club in Hawaii, but retired at the end of the season.

Aftermath

Prince William’s working agreement with Pittsburgh expired after the 1986 season. The team quickly struck a new deal with the New York Yankees and returned in 1987 as the Prince William Yankees. The Carolina League franchise remained in Woodbridge through three more name and affiliation changes until the end of the 2019 season. Known as the Potomac Nationals in its final incarnation, the franchise moved to Fredericksburg, Virginia in 2020. Today’s Fredericksburg Nationals compete in the Low-A East League, the successor organization to the Carolina League, which was eradicated by Major League Baseball during the 2020 re-organization of the minor league system.

 

Trivia

The Prince William Pirates, circa 1985, were owned by a group of more than 325 community stockholders, none of whom owned more than 3% of the team. (The Washington Post 6-17-1985)

 

Links

Carolina League Media Guides

Carolina League Programs

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