Courtesy of Jonathan Kirn of Allsport

Lake Highlands High School alum and former Texas A&M University infielder Scott Livingstone has been selected as a member of the College Baseball Hall of Fame. Livingstone will be the first Aggie inductee since the Hall’s inaugural class in 2006.

After graduating as a Wildcat in 1984, Livingstone enjoyed one of the most celebrated careers since Texas A&M baseball began. He earned a .342 career batting average over the course of his 241 games (second-most in Aggie history) and had 301 hits (second-most in Aggie history), 217 runs scored (most in Aggie history), 75 doubles (most in Aggie history), 50 home runs (third-most in Aggie history), 881 at bats (most in Aggie history), 228 RBI (most in Aggie history) and 543 total bases (most in Aggie history).

Livingstone was named All-Southwest Conference in 1985, 1987 and 1988 — one of just 20 players to collect all-conference honors three times. He was also named to the All-Southwest Conference tournament team in 1986 and 1988.

The highlight of his freshman year was his three-home run performance against TCU, but his finest season came in 1987 when he gathered both the Marion Pugh Most Valuable Player Award and consensus All-America honors from The Sporting News, Baseball America and Converse. That year he batted .403 and hit 72 runs, 19 home runs, 76 RBI and 167 total bases.

Later that year, he played for the USA Baseball National Team, earning a silver medal at the 1987 Pan American Games.

Livingstone earned All-America recognition from The Sporting News and Baseball America following his standout senior season, with 21 doubles and a 22-game hitting streak which remains tied as the fifth-longest streak by an Aggie. He’s one of only 10 players in Texas A&M baseball history to earn All-America honors multiple times.

Livingstone was selected in the second round of the MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers in 1988, and in July of 1991, he became the 29th Aggie to make his major league debut. During his eight seasons with the Tigers, Padres, Cardinals and Expos, he compiled a .281 career batting average with 431 hits, 163 runs scored and 177 RBI.

Livingstone was inducted into the Texas A&M Athletic Hall of Fame in 1994.

In a 2023 interview with Spitballin’, Livingstone explained how he came to play for the Aggies.

“I was being heavily recruited but decided to stay in state, so the University of Texas and Texas A&M were the two top schools in the state,” he said. “Rice, TCU and Texas Tech weren’t where they are now. I got a letter from Texas my junior year (at Lake Highlands) offering me a full scholarship, so my mind was made up to go to Texas. Then I went and visited both and liked A&M a little more.”

“I was on a recruiting trip to Texas with some other guys,” he continued. “We went to Stuart Anderson’s Steakhouse in Austin, Texas. (College Baseball Hall of Famer) Cliff Gustafson was the Head Coach at Texas at the time. He went around the table to each kid on the recruiting trip and said, ‘Are you ready to sign with Texas and become a Longhorn?’ Every kid said yes, and I was the last one he asked. He said, ‘Scott, how about it? Are you ready to join these guys and be a Longhorn?’ I said, ‘You know, I think I’m gonna look at A&M next week.’ My dad just about choked on his steak.”

Livingstone’s dad knew a little something about sports recruiting. He played football at SMU.

“I would have gone to SMU to play baseball, but they didn’t have a team,” Livingstone told Spitballin’. “When I was about six years old, I wrote a little note to my mom that I wanted to be a Major League Baseball player. She still had it at the house. I started with tee ball and watched my (older) brother as he was playing and followed in his footsteps. Me and some friends would drive to Rangers games a lot, but when we drove to the stadium, Six Flags was on the way, so we always ended up stopping there instead.”

Many know that Livingstone was drafted right out of college, but few know he was also drafted after his senior year at Lake Highlands High.

“I don’t know (how that happened), because school really wasn’t my thing,” he laughed. “I got drafted by the Blue Jays in the sixth round out of high school. They called me when they came to Texas to play the Rangers and invited me to take batting practice with them. Rance Mulliniks and Garth Iorg were their third basemen that year, and they told me to come dress out with them. I had a locker next to Dennis Lamp. I was 17 years old and was so intimidated, but I got to hit in the Rangers ballpark, and that was so cool. When I was done, they told me they’d have my jersey ready tomorrow and they’d see me then, but I never went back. I was too intimidated.”

Livingstone’s fellow inductees in the College Baseball Hall of Fame Class of 2026 include Earl Bass (South Carolina), Barry Bonds (Arizona State), Jeff Brantley (Mississippi State), Dave Clark (Jackson State), Bruce Gardner (USC), Marquis Grissom (Florida A&M), Bobby Jones (Fresno State), Bobby Layne (Texas), David McCarty (Stanford), Lloyd Peever (Seminole State), Buster Posey (Florida State), Mike Smith (Indiana), Dave Stegman (Arizona), Huston Street (Texas), Brent Strom (USC). Coaching inductees are Danny Hall (Kent State and Georgia Tech) and Hal Smeltzy (Florida Southern). Others include contributor Jim Darby (California), umpire Gus Rodriguez (Dominican University New York) and umpire Tony Walsh (Austin Peay).

Livingston hosts the Ball5 podcast, and he and wife Emily own and run St0nes Apparel.