Locklear made the Reds' Opening Day roster in 1973,making his major league debut on April 5. Ken Griffey and Dan Driessen played more than Locklear,who had a .192 batting average in limited playing time. On June 12,1973,the Reds traded Locklear and Mike Johnson to the San Diego Padres for Fred Norman.[5][9] He finished the season with a .233 average in 180 at bats between Cincinnati and San Diego. The Padres assigned Locklear to the Hawaii Islanders of the Class AAA Pacific Coast League to start the 1974 season. He batted .341 in 77 games and was promoted to the Padres,where he received 50 at bats. Locklear began the 1975 season with San Diego,but remained behind Bobby Tolan in their depth chart.[5] In May,he complained about being benched despite batting .441,while Tolan was paid more but not hitting as well,and the Padres demoted Locklear to the Islanders.[10] Locklear returned to the Padres after playing in 18 games for Hawaii and batted .321 in 237 at bats for the Reds for the 1975 season.[5]
On July 10,1976,the Padres traded Locklear to the New York Yankees for a player to be named later. The Yankees assigned Locklear to the Syracuse Chiefs of the Class AAA International League.[11]Rick Sawyer went to the Padres from Syracuse as the player to be named later.[12] The Yankees promoted Locklear to the major leagues on August 3.[2] He played in 13 games for the Yankees in 1976. Playing for the Chiefs in 1977,Locklear batted over .300 with 25 home runs.[13] He hit four home runs in a game against the Columbus Clippers,tying an International League single-game record.[14] Though the Yankees were competing for the postseason,they acquired Cliff Johnson and Dave Kingman rather than turn to Locklear.[5] The Yankees did promote Locklear to the major leagues as a September call-up,and he batted 3-for-5 in one game for the Yankees in the 1977 season.[13]
After the 1977 season,Locklear became a free agent.[15] He signed a two-year contract worth over $100,000 per season with the Nippon-Ham Fighters of Nippon Professional Baseball.[5] He batted .240 in the 1978 season and the Fighters released him. He was invited to spring training in 1979 with the Reds as a non-roster player.[16] Locklear did not make the team. The Reds offered Locklear a roster spot with Indianapolis,which he declined.[17] Locklear retired from baseball.[7]
Art career
Locklear began painting when he was young.[7] He began selling his paintings while he was in high school. In addition to athletes,Locklear also paints Native American people and landscapes.[5][1] He paints with acrylic paint during the warmer months and oil paints during colder months.[2]
1 2 3 Bock, Hal (September 29, 2002). "Ex-Yankee Rediscovers His Stroke". The Times-Tribune. Associated Press. p.D2. Retrieved July 4, 2023– via Newspapers.com.
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