December 23, 2025

Dear Shadow Ball: What pitcher holds the Negro League record for most inning pitched?

Mick Kolb, York, PA.

Dear Mick:  My go to source for such questions is Seamheads Negro League Database. The leader in innings pitched in that database is Cannonball Dick Redding (2,334 innings over 26 years). This total includes games in the Negro Leagues plus Cuba, the Florida Winter Hotel League, and games versus minor and major league teams. Limiting the view, as your question does, to Negro League games only sent me to a different source – mlb.com. Since May 2024, Negro League statistics are now included on that site. To interpret and compile innings pitched, I turned to Tom Thress, President, Retrosheet, who informed me that Willie Foster (with 1,521 innings) leads all pitchers in total innings pitched in major Negro League games.

Last week’s Shadow Ball Significa question – Who was the first African American signed to a contract by the Boston Red Sox organization? For the 2^nd week in a row, Will Clark, Hackensack, NJ, smacks one of my hanging curves over the fence … dodging my reach for a Pumpsie Green – who, in 1959, was the first African-American to play for the Boston Red Sox –   answer he kept his focus on 1950 and offered Piper Davis which is correct. Unfortunately, Piper never got the call to come to Fenway.

The Shadow Ball Significa Question of the Week: Who was the last surviving Atlanta Black Crackers player? Here is a clue for you to keep from going down a rabbit hole – this player was born and died in Atlanta.

Ted Knorr is a Negro League baseball historian, longtime member of the Society for American Baseball Research’s Negro League Committee, and founder of the Jerry Malloy Negro League Conference and several local Negro League Commemorative Nights in central Pennsylvania. You can send questions for Knorr on Negro League topics as well as your answers to the week’s Significa question to  shadowball@truthseekersjournal.com or Shadowball, 3904 N Druid Hills Rd, Ste 179, Decatur, GA 30033

Support open, independent journalism—your contribution helps us tell the stories that matter most.