Alexandria Dukes creator Mann dies at 86

ALEXANDRIA, Va.- Frank E. Mann, 86, the three-term mayor of Alexandria who oversaw the creation of the Alexandria Dukes Minor League baseball team in the 1970s, died April 25 of prostate cancer at his home in Old Town.

Mann, born in Atlanta on May 1, 1920 and a 1941 graduate of George Washington University, was elected mayor of Alexandria in 1961, serving two terms until 1967 and then was elected again in 1976, serving until 1979.

Mann was mayor of the city when the Dukes were launched alongside the Kinston Eagles, in an attempt to revitalize the Carolina League in 1978. In later years, the Dukes would become the Potomac Nationals and an affiliate of the Washington Nationals.

After the Washington Senators relocated to Texas in 1972, the Dukes were the first team to play in the Washington, D.C.-area and played their games at Four Mile Run Park in the vicinity of what is now Reagan National Airport. In 1979, still unaffiliated with any Major League ballclub, the team changed its name to the Alexandria Mariners.

The team was in the area for five years, from 1978 to 1983, unaffiliated for the first two years before it became a farm team for the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1981. The Dukes won the Carolina League in 1982 for the only time in team history after they defeated the Durham Bulls in the split-season playoffs under manager Johnny Lipon.

But in 1983, after all eight of the Carolina League teams had secured affiliations with the Major Leagues, the Pirates decided to move the team away from the high-schoolish Four Mile Run Park, to Woodbridge, where it existed as the Prince William Pirates, then the Prince William Yankees and Cannons, Potomac Cannons, and finally, the Potomac Nationals.

After graduating from McKinley Technology High School and George Mason University, Mann served in the Navy during World War II with the Seabees and was awarded the Bronze Star.

Mann then became president of his family's potato chip company, served in the Virginia Assembly from 1970 to 1975 and was mayor when Alexandria was designated an All-American City in 1964.

Mann is survived by his wife, Anita Mann of Alexandria, a daughter, Patty Lee Briggs of Laurel from his first marriage, two step children, Amy Mann Fang of Arlington and Eric Izo of New York, seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.