New team will play at Four Mile Run Park

June 7, 2007

The Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Baseball League will welcome the Alexandria Aces as its eighth member franchise for the 2008 season.

Next summer, the Aces will join the Bethesda Big Train, College Park Bombers, Herndon Braves, Maryland Redbirds, Rockville Express, Silver Spring-Takoma Thunderbolts, and AAABA National Champion Youse’s Maryland Orioles in the Ripken, Sr. League, the premier summer amateur baseball league in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Pat Malone, marketing director of SportsFan Magazine, spent the past six years working with three teams in the Shenandoah Valley Baseball League and brings his summer collegiate baseball experience to the Aces as team president and general manager. Malone is joined by Don Dinan, an attorney and partner in the Washington, D.C. office of Roetzel & Andress. Dinan is part-owner and general counsel of the Class-A Fort Myers Miracle, a minor-league affiliate of the Minnesota Twins in the Florida State League. Dinan will serve as the Aces’ chairman.

The Aces will play at historic Four Mile Run Park in Alexandria, Virginia. Four Mile Run is the former home of the Carolina League Class-A Alexandria Dukes (1978 to 1982). The Dukes became what is now the Class-A Potomac Nationals, who make their current home in Woodbridge, Virginia.

The Aces have negotiated a long-term memorandum of understanding with the City of Alexandria to make their home at Four Mile Run, which currently seats 2,200 fans. Malone and Dinan have already pledged to make improvements to the ballpark on a yearly basis. Their initial plans include upgrading the dugouts, moving the bullpens, and purchasing a full infield tarp, batting practice screens, and a portable batting cage.

Like the other seven member franchises of the Ripken, Sr. League, and the league itself, the Aces have been incorporated as a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit organization.