July 14, 1977: Gene Locklear hits four home runs for Syracuse Chiefs, barely misses a fifth

On July 14, 1977, Gene Locklear almost had a massively epic night. Instead, he had to settle for merely a historic one.

Starting at designated hitter for the Syracuse Chiefs of the Triple-A International League, Locklear became the first IL batter in 21 years to hit four home runs in a game. He took four different Columbus Clippers pitchers deep and drove in six runs as the Chiefs administered an 11-1 licking at Columbus’s ballpark, Franklin County Stadium.

What kept Locklear’s night from reaching its highest heights? He narrowly missed an unprecedented fifth home run, sending Columbus center fielder Miguel Diloné to the wall to pull in a deep fly ball in the fifth inning. Locklear blamed too much topspin for the out, adding, “I hit that ball the hardest.”1

A Shrine Night crowd of 7,180 fans2 turned out on a Thursday to watch two of the IL’s lesser teams. Syracuse, a New York Yankees farm club under the direction of Pete Ward, entered in fifth place with a 43-43 record, 6½ games behind the first-place Pawtucket Red Sox. Columbus, a Pittsburgh Pirates affiliate managed by Johnny Lipon, held down last place in the eight-team league with a 35-52 record, 15 games back.3

Locklear, who was five days shy of his 28th birthday, had been acquired by the Yankees from the San Diego Padres in July 1976.4 A lefty-swinging, righty-throwing outfielder in his ninth pro season, he’d spent part or all of the preceding four seasons in the majors with the Cincinnati Reds, Padres, and Yankees, but had yet to reach the bigs in 1977. Off the field, he was a skilled artist who commanded $500 to $1,000 per painting and had recently opened an exhibition in Syracuse. He’d donated one of his works to the White House and turned out 26 paintings of former Reds teammate Pete Rose for Rose’s Cincinnati-area restaurant.5

On the field, he had a complicated reputation – that of a skilled line-drive hitter who could be a defensive liability or make mental lapses.6 Three days before his big night in Columbus, Locklear had ended an 11-9 loss to Pawtucket in galling fashion: With the bases loaded, he’d inexplicably wandered too far off second base and gotten picked off for the game’s final out.7 For his part, Locklear suggested he had been treated poorly in baseball because of his Lumbee Native American ancestry and spoke dismissively of the business side of the game: “It’s all a business. Nobody cares. It’s screw the individual.”8

Alongside Locklear, seven of the nine batters in the Chiefs’ starting lineup had either been to the majors or were headed there. The list included center fielder Dave Moates, shortstop Greg Pryor, left fielder Dave Bergman, third baseman Mickey Klutts, first baseman Dennis Werth, and second baseman Brian Doyle.9 Klutts had shared the IL MVP award the previous season with two other players,10 hitting .319 with 24 homers and 80 RBIs. But Klutts’s stellar season earned him only two games with the 1976 American League champions, and he didn’t return to the majors until August 1977.

The start went to left-hander Luis Quintana, a native of Puerto Rico in his seventh pro season at age 25. Quintana had made 22 relief appearances with the California Angels in 1974 and 1975, going 2-3 with a 5.03 ERA. He entered the July 14 game with a 1-4 record.

Eight of the nine Clippers’ hitters were also past or future major-leaguers.11 They included Diloné, second baseman Mike Edwards, left fielder Ken Macha, first baseman Bob Oliver, designated hitter Mike Easler, third baseman Dale Berra, catcher Ellie Rodríguez, and shortstop Dave Augustine. The Clippers’ offensive leaders for the full season included Berra and Easler, co-leaders in homers with 18; Oliver, the top RBI man with 85; and Edwards, whose 62 stolen bases led the league.

Columbus’s starter on the mound was 34-year-old lefty Bob Johnson, who had won a World Series title with the 1971 Pirates and had begun the 1977 season with the Atlanta Braves. Johnson had racked up a 7.25 ERA in 15 relief appearances for the Braves. Signed by the Pirates after his release by Atlanta on June 7, two days after what turned out to be his final big-league appearance, he’d fared little better for Columbus, failing to last through the third inning in his previous two starts.12

July 14 was not destined to be Johnson’s night either. In the top of the second inning, Klutts singled. Locklear, following Klutts and batting sixth in the Chiefs’ lineup, parked a pitch over the 400-foot marker in straightaway center field for his first homer. Catcher Dennis Irwin followed with a triple, and Doyle singled him in for a quick 3-0 Syracuse lead.13 Johnson’s night was done after just 1 1/3 innings. His replacement, 24-year-old lefty Al Holland, wrapped up the inning without further scoring.

In the third, Bergman reached base on a single, bringing up Locklear one out later. This time, Locklear went opposite-field, hitting what the Syracuse Herald-Journal called a “slicing liner to left that had plenty of room to spare as it cleared the wall.” The Chiefs took a 5-0 lead.14

In the fourth, other Chiefs stepped up to continue the barrage. With Moates and right fielder Marv Thompson on base, Bergman drilled his 11th home run of the season off Holland to bring the score to 8-0. Game accounts don’t specify how Moates or Thompson reached base, except to say that an error by shortstop Augustine contributed to the rally.15

Quintana, meanwhile, was motoring along in “full control of the game,” according to the Syracuse Herald-Journal, until he hit a minor speed bump in the bottom of the fourth. Berra tripled to left-center field and right fielder Ron Mitchell drove him in with a ground-rule double, making the score 8-1.16 It was the only inning in which Quintana allowed two Columbus hitters to reach base.17

One inning after Locklear’s near-miss to deep center field, Moates, a former Texas Ranger, led off the sixth with his second homer of the year off new Clippers reliever Rich Standart.18 The blast gave Syracuse a 9-1 lead. An inning later, Locklear led off and duplicated Moates’ feat, hitting an opposite-field solo homer off Standart for a 10-1 lead.19

The only suspense left in the ninth inning was whether Locklear would hit four homers in a game for the seventh time in IL history. The last to accomplish the feat was Curt Roberts of the Columbus Jets against Havana in a seven-inning game on August 27, 1956.20

By this time, Lipon had called on lefty reliever Mickey Scott, less than two weeks from his 30th birthday, who’d been on the staff of the California Angels as recently as early June. With the crowd clapping in support, Locklear laced Scott’s first pitch down the right-field line and over the fence for his record-tying fourth homer.21 It was the game’s final run.

Quintana finished off his complete game in the bottom of the ninth, wrapping up matters in 2 hours and 28 minutes. He scattered nine hits, issued no walks, and struck out five, throwing 90 pitches.22 The long-departed Johnson took the loss.

Locklear, who’d entered the game with four homers, doubled his total for the season. Analyzing his performance, he described the pitches he’d hit as belt-high fastballs. “When I’m hitting good, I hit the ball where it’s pitched,” he added. “That’s why I hit one to left, one to center, and one to right tonight.”23

Quintana was thankful for the offensive explosion, quipping, “I guess I should buy the ‘Chief’ a steak dinner.”24 In the Columbus locker room, manager Lipon was circumspect: “What can you say about this one? We just didn’t have a good game and they had a great one. And that Locklear was tremendous.”25

Syracuse finished the season in fifth place with a 70-70 record, while Columbus closed in seventh at 65-75. Locklear finished the season hitting .290 with 20 homers and 84 RBIs in 121 games. But the eventual World Series champion Yankees were again loaded, and Locklear played in only one major-league game that season, starting in left field and going 3-for-5 in the Yankees’ regular-season finale on October 2. Bergman, who also got a late-season call-up and appeared in five games, replaced Locklear as a defensive sub in the ninth inning.

Locklear spent 1978 with the Nippon Ham Fighters of the Japan Pacific League. Invited to spring training with the Reds the following year, he was part of the final round of cuts and left professional baseball.26

• Related link: Check out SABR’s comprehensive list of all 4-HR games in professional baseball history

Acknowledgments

This story was fact-checked by Kevin Larkin and copy-edited by John Fredland. The author thanks the staff of the Columbus (Ohio) Metropolitan Library for research assistance.

Sources and photo credit 

In addition to the specific sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org for general player, team and season data.

Neither Baseball-Reference nor Retrosheet provides box scores of minor-league games, but the July 15, 1977, editions of the Syracuse Herald-Journal and Post-Standard published box scores.

Photo of Gene Locklear from the Syracuse Herald-Journal, July 15, 1977: 17.

Notes

1 Bob Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record,” Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, July 15, 1977: D1; “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book,” Syracuse (New York) Herald-Journal, July 15, 1977: 17.

2 Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record.”

3 International League standings as printed in the Rochester (New York) Democrat and Chronicle, July 14, 1977: 2D. Incidentally, Columbus took over as the Yankees’ Triple A affiliate in 1979 and held that role through the 2006 season.

4 In return for Locklear, the Padres received pitcher Rick Sawyer.

5 Bud Poliquin, “Brush or Bat, He’s an Artist,” Syracuse (New York) Post-Standard, July 24, 1976: 15B; Murray Chass (New York Times News Service), “Indian Locklear Making Mark in Baseball, Art,” Tallahassee (Florida) Democrat, September 5, 1976: 3E; “Gene Locklear Swings Brushes as Well as Bats,” Syracuse Herald-American, July 10, 1977: 80.

6 Bud Poliquin, “His Four Homers Aside, Locklear’s Still a Puzzle,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July 16, 1977: 13. This is a remarkably negative story about a ballplayer who’d just achieved a historic feat, and itperhaps gives some idea both of Locklear’s attitude and of the failure of sportswriters to understand him.

7 Joe Robbins, “Locklear’s Mental Error Costly in 11-9 Tribe Loss,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July 12, 1977: 13.

8 Poliquin, “His Four Homers Aside, Locklear’s Still a Puzzle”; Poliquin, “Brush or Bat, He’s an Artist.”

9 The two who didn’t make it were right fielder Marv Thompson and catcher Dennis Irwin.

10 The IL’s co-MVPs in 1976 were Rich Dauer of the Rochester Red Wings and Joe Lis of the Toledo Mud Hens.

11 The starter who didn’t make it was right fielder Ron Mitchell.

12 Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record.”

13 “Locklear Hits Four Home Runs,” Syracuse Post-Standard, July 15, 1977: 13.

14 “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book.”

15 “Locklear Hits Four Home Runs.”

16 Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record.”

17 “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book.”

18 “Locklear Hits Four Home Runs.”

19 “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book.”

20 “Locklear Hits Four Home Runs”; “Elite Group Hit 4 Homers,” Syracuse (New York) Herald-Journal, July 15, 1977: 17; Associated Press, “Curt Roberts Hits 4 Homers as Jets Win, 10-7,” Chillicothe (Ohio) Gazette, August 28, 1956: 11. Roberts, an infielder, is chiefly remembered as the first African-American to play for the Pittsburgh Pirates, in 1954.

21 “Locklear Hits Four Home Runs.”

22 Pitch count according to Syracuse coach and former major-league catcher Jerry McNertney, quoted in “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book.”

23 “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book”; Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record.” Actually, Locklear hit two to left, one to center, and one to right.

24 “Locklear Slugs Way into IL Record Book.” Like other ballplayers of native ancestry, Locklear was sometimes called “Chief.” A photo distributed with a wire-service story in fall 1976 showed Locklear wearing a cap with the word “CHIEF” prominently written under the brim. Chass, “Indian Locklear Making Mark in Baseball, Art.”

25 Baptist, “Four Homers Tie IL Record.”

26 Rory Costello, “Gene Locklear,” SABR Biography Project, accessed June 2025, https://sabr.org/bioproj/person/gene-locklear/.