Wes Livengood

Wesley Amos "Wes" Livengood (born July 18, 1910 in Salisbury, North Carolina - died September 2, 1996 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina) was a major league baseball pitcher and minor league baseball manager including some time as a player-manager.

Livengood was signed by the Cincinnati Reds, and played in their farm system for several years before he broke into the big leagues in 1939. He pitched a total of five and two-thirds innings for Cincinnati over five games as a reliever during the 1939 season.

He returned to the minors making stops in Knoxville, Durham, Portsmouth, and Milwaukee. He served in the Navy for two years during World War II where, among other things, he played baseball at Pearl Harbor.

After the war Livengood played more minor league ball through the 1952 season and sometimes served as the a player-manager as he did for Kinston in 1951.

His best year was in 1938 when he went 21-9 with an ERA of 3.06. Another outstanding campaign was 1943 when he went 18-10 for Milwaukee.

After his playing days were over, he managed in the minors and scouted for the Philadelphia Phillies for thirty years, where he discovered and/or signed players such as Don Cardwell, Jimmie Coker, and Dickie Noles.

He also owned and operated Carolinas Men's Shop and, later, the Livengood Furniture Company. He died at age 86 and is buried at Salem Cemetery in Winston-Salem.

References

* [http://www.baseball-reference.com/l/livenwe01.shtml BR page]
*cite book | author=Gaunt, Robert| title=We Would Have Played Forever: The Story of the Coastal Plain Baseball League | publisher=Baseball America, Inc. | year=1997 | id=ISBN 0-945-16402-5