When Mariners first baseman Ty France suffered a hairline fracture in his right heel and was placed on the 10-day injured list, Abingdon native and Archbishop Curley graduate Tyler Locklear called his father and told him his dream had come true.
After he was promoted from Triple-A Tacoma, where he spent less than two weeks and batted .300/.417/.475 in 10 games, Locklear made his major league debut in Kansas City on June 9. After going hitless in his first two at-bats, Locklear roped a go-ahead double to right field for his first career hit and RBI.
While the Royals tied the game in the ninth inning, Locklear was crucial in the Mariners’ 6-5 victory.
“[Getting a hit] definitely helps a little bit,” Locklear said on Glenn Clark Radio June 19. “It lets you step back and take a little bit of a breath like, ‘Hey, I did it.'”
Locklear played in 11 major league games, batting .200/.250/.433 with two home runs and three RBIs before getting optioned back to Tacoma June 24. While he’s had a promising start to his career, the 6-foot-2, 210-pound infielder was never certain he would make the big leagues.
“You never really know, honestly, just because it’s baseball and it’s a weird game,” he said. “This time last year, I wasn’t even playing baseball because I broke my hand, so I was out for two months. So, you just never really know, and you just really try to keep your head down and just keep working. When you get the call, just try to be ready for the opportunity.”
Locklear grew up in Abingdon and attended Archbishop Curley High School, where he dominated. He was a 2018 Under Armour All-American and three-time all-conference selection. He was also the ninth-ranked player in the state of Maryland by Perfect Game after an impressive senior season in which he hit .500 with six home runs.
Locklear credits much of his success to the people around him. They made sacrifices and helped him put in the necessary work, whether that be hitting him ground balls, throwing him batting practice or driving him to games. If it were not for the relationships he made in Abingdon years ago, Locklear would not be hitting home runs in Seattle today.
Following high school, Locklear played at VCU for three years, where he holds the program single-season home run (20), single-season RBI (78) and career slugging percentage (.704) records.
The Mariners chose Locklear with the No. 58 overall pick of the 2022 MLB Draft, which helped his confidence. But it was his high school and college coaches who helped lay the groundwork.
“Those guys believed in me and tried to get me to the next level,” he said. “They kind of had the vision when I didn’t. … They were really impactful to me.”
Locklear soaked in every moment of his first stint in the major leagues. However, he’s not satisfied with the season yet with the Mariners in the midst of a playoff push.
After growing up less than 30 miles away from Camden Yards, Locklear cannot wait for the day he returns home. And with the way Baltimore and Seattle have been performing this season, Locklear may not have to wait until next season for his homecoming.
“It would definitely be really cool just being back home, and then just trying to see the amount of people that’ll come out — all your friends and family, seeing them,” he said. “We’ve got a couple guys out here in Cleveland that have been able to do that [recently]. So, just trying to have that happen in Baltimore would be really cool to see.”
See Also: Abingdon Native Tyler Locklear On When MLB Draft Dreams Started To Become Real
For more from Locklear, listen to the full interview here:
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Seattle Mariners