Carl Mack "Skinny" McNabb (January 25, 1917 – July 16, 2007) was a

professional baseball Professional baseball is organized baseball in which players are selected for their talents and are paid to play for a specific team or club system. It is played in baseball league, leagues and associated farm teams throughout the world. Mod ...

player. A second baseman during his fifteen-year minor league baseball career, he made one appearance in

Major League Baseball Major League Baseball (MLB) is a professional baseball organization and the oldest major professional sports league in the world. MLB is composed of 30 total teams, divided equally between the National League (NL) and the American League (AL), ...

for the

Detroit Tigers The Detroit Tigers are an American professional baseball team based in Detroit. The Tigers compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member of the American League (AL) Central division. One of the AL's eight charter franchises, the club was f ...

during the 1945 season as a

pinch hitter In baseball, a pinch hitter is a substitute Batting (baseball), batter. Batters can be substituted at any time while the dead ball (baseball), ball is dead (not in active play); the manager (baseball), manager may use any player who has not yet ...

. Listed at 5'9", 155 lb., McNabb batted and threw right-handed. He was born in

Stevenson, Alabama Stevenson is a city in Jackson County, Alabama, United States, and is included in the Chattanooga-Cleveland-Dalton, TN-GA-AL Combined Statistical Area. Sources listed either 1866 or 1867 as the year of incorporation, but that seems to conflict w ...

Life

McNabb began his professional baseball career in 1936 with the

Ozark Cardinals The Ozarks, also known as the Ozark Mountains, Ozark Highlands or Ozark Plateau, is a physiographic region in the U.S. states of Missouri, Arkansas, Oklahoma and the extreme southeastern corner of Kansas. The Ozarks cover a significant portio ...

of the

Alabama–Florida League The Alabama–Florida League was a low-level circuit in American minor league baseball that existed from 1936 through 1939 and 1951 through 1962. In 1940–1941 and from 1946–1950. The absence of clubs based in Florida caused the league to chan ...

. He played second base throughout his baseball career. He was hitless in his only major league game,

striking out ''Striking Out'' is an Irish television legal drama series, broadcast on RTÉ, that first aired on 1 January 2017. Produced by Bl!nder F!lms for RTÉ Television, ''Striking Out'' stars Amy Huberman as Dublin-based solicitor Tara Rafferty, who is ...

in his only

at bat In baseball, an at bat (AB) or time at bat is a batter's turn batting against a pitcher. An at bat is different from a plate appearance. A batter is credited with a plate appearance regardless of what happens during their turn at bat, but a batt ...

, which came against

Steve Gromek Stephen Joseph Gromek (January 15, 1920 – March 12, 2002) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball who played for 17 seasons in the American League with the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. In 447 career games, Gromek ...

of the

Cleveland Indians The Cleveland Guardians are an American professional baseball team based in Cleveland. The Guardians compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the American League (AL) Central division. Since , they have played at Progressive F ...

on April 20, 1945. Although he continued to play in the minor leagues until 1950, he never made it back to the majors. He later served as

player-manager A player-coach (also playing coach, captain-coach, or player-manager) is a member of a sports team who simultaneously holds both playing and coaching duties. A player-coach may be a head coach or an assistant coach. They may make changes to the sq ...

of the

Tyler Trojans The Tyler Trojans were a minor league baseball team based in Tyler, Texas that played on-and-off from 1924 to 1950. The team played in the East Texas League (1924–1926, 1931, 1936–1940, 1946, 1949–1950), Lone Star League (1927–1929, 1947– ...

, a

Cincinnati Reds The Cincinnati Reds are an American professional baseball team based in Cincinnati. They compete in Major League Baseball (MLB) as a member club of the National League (NL) National League Central, Central division and were a charter member of ...

affiliate team, in 1949. Overall, he had a .280 batting average with 37 home runs during his minor league career. Following his baseball career, McNabb moved to

Jasper, Tennessee Jasper is a town in and the county seat of Marion County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 3,612 at the 2020 census. The town was formed in 1820 from lands acquired from Betsy Pack (1770–1851), daughter of Cherokee Chief John Lo ...

, where he ran a grocery store, then became a rural mail carrier for 22 years. He was a veteran of the U.S. Army who served in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

as a medic, and also started and coached an American Legion Baseball team in Jasper. He died at a local hospital at age 90.

References

Baseball in Wartime
* {{DEFAULTSORT:McNabb, Carl Detroit Tigers players Ozark Cardinals players Tyler Trojans players Wilkes-Barre Barons (baseball) players Springfield Indians players Sunbury Indians players Hagerstown Owls players Buffalo Bisons (minor league) players Dallas Rebels players Lubbock Hubbers players Baseball second basemen Baseball players from Alabama United States Army personnel of World War II People from Stevenson, Alabama 1917 births 2007 deaths People from Jasper, Tennessee United States Army soldiers