Alexandria Dukes / Alexandria Mariners

Carolina League (1978-1983)

Background

The Alexandria Dukes were a Virginia-based entry in the Class A Carolina League from 1978 through 1983. The team’s inception as an expansion franchise in the spring of 1978 marked the return of professional baseball to the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area for the first time since the American League’s Washington Senators absconded for Arlington, Texas at the end of the 1971 season.

Alexandria Mayor Frank E. Mann was a driving force behind acquiring the Carolina League franchise and he recruited local builder Gene Thomas to head up the ownership group. The city lacked a proper ballpark to host professional baseball, but the Carolina League could not afford to be picky. The circuit had scraped by with just four members for the past three summers and was on the verge of extinction. When Alexandria was admitted in early 1978, the league also needed a sixth member to create a workable schedule. A new owner was found for Kinston, North Carolina, a long-time Carolina League outpost that had fallen by the wayside earlier in the 1970’s.  The addition of Alexandria and Kinston in 1978, followed by the debut of the wildly popular Durham Bulls club the following year set the Carolina League on its road to recovery during the 1980’s.

In the meantime, Alexandria had to make due with what it had for a ballpark. The Dukes play at Four Mile Run Park, a muddy, bare-bones diamond adjacent to an elementary school. Seating consisted of a small number of back-less and uncovered metal bleachers. Since the ballpark sat on school property, alcohol sales were prohibited.

Major League Merry-Go-Round

Due to Alexandria’s late admittance to the Carolina League in 1978, the team had to operate as an independent club that summer. This meant the team had no Major League parent club to subsidize its expenses and provide talent. The Dukes would be responsible for finding and signing their own players.

One such player was Mickey Mantle, Jr., the 25 -year old son of the legendary New York Yankees slugger. The junior Mantle had not played organized baseball in four years and struggled to hit Class A pitching, batting .070 (4-for-60) with 26 strikeouts. The team released Mantle in June of 1978. The 17 games he played for the Dukes in 1978 marked the entirety of his pro career. No member of the Dukes’ 1978 independent squad ever advanced to the Major Leagues.

Ahead of the 1979 season, Alexandria hooked a Major League tie-up with the Seattle Mariners organization. As part of the deal, the team dropped its “Dukes” identity and became the Alexandria Mariners for the 1979 season. Five members of the Alexandria Mariners went on to make the big leagues, headlined by 18-year old catcher Dave Valle, who would go onto play ten seasons for Seattle and then spend many more as a color analyst for M’s radio and television broadcasts.

Seattle pulled out after only one season and Alexandra reclaimed the Dukes identity in 1980. That summer, the Dukes were a “co-op” team. This was a somewhat-dreaded status that is no longer allowed in Minor League Baseball today but was not unusual in the low minors during the 1970’s and 1980’s. Like independent teams, co-op teams did not belong to the farm system of a Major League organization. Instead, they accepted loans of players – typically of lesser regard – from multiple Major League clubs, rounded out with occasional free agents and try out players.

In 1981 Alexandria gained a new Major League affiliation with the Pittsburgh Pirates. This partnership would last for the rest of the ball club’s time in Alexandria.

1982 Championship Season

The Dukes enjoyed their finest season in 1982, as a Pirates farm team under the direction of field manager Johnny Lipon. After an 80-54 regular season, the Dukes met the Durham Bulls in the Carolina League championship series in September 1982.

The Dukes defeated the Bulls in a three-game sweep. Burk Goldthorn, a 23-year old rookie catcher from the University of Texas, was the series hero. Though Goldthorn hit just two home runs in 96 games during the regular season, he bashed game-deciding round trippers in both Game 2 and Game 3. His 7th inning grand slam at Durham Athletic Park in Game 3 providing the series-clinching margin for the Dukes in the decisive contest.

Move To Woodbridge

During the 1983 season, Dukes owner Gene Thomas struck a deal with the city of Woodbridge, Virginia, twenty miles to the south, to build a new ballpark for his Carolina League club. Woodbridge’s 6,000-seat Davis Ford Park Stadium would be ready for the team in the spring of 1984. The Dukes announced their forthcoming departure officially in July, with two months left to run in the 1983 season.

The former Alexandria Dukes franchise that was founded in 1978 still exists in the Carolina League today. After multiple further name changes and moves, the club is now as the Fredericksburg Nationals.

Professional baseball has never returned to the city of Alexandria following the departure of the Dukes.

Trivia

Outfielder Bobby Bonilla (Dukes ’83) was the last member of the Alexandria Dukes active in professional baseball when he played his final game for the St. Louis Cardinals in 2001. Bonilla was a six-time Major League All-Star with the Pirates, New York Mets and Baltimore Orioles.

Alexandria Dukes Shop

In Memoriam

Manager Johnny Lipon (Dukes ’82-’83) passed on August 17th, 1998 at age 75.

Outfielder Mickey Mantle, Jr. (Dukes ’78) passed away on December 20th, 2000 at age 47 following a battle with cancer. New York Times obituary.

Manager Les Peden (Dukes ’78) died on February 11th, 2002 at the age of 78. As a player, Peden appeared in nine Major League games for the Washington Senators in 1953.

Downloads

August 1979 Alexandria Mariners vs. Winston-Salem Red Sox Game Notes

Links

Carolina League Media Guides

Carolina League Programs

###