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Richard William Bass (July 7, 1906 – February 3, 1989) was a Major League Baseball pitcher who grew up in Rogersville, Tennessee. He attended Miami University and was part of the All-Buckeye teams his junior and senior years. After signing with the St. Louis Cardinals, he made his pro debut in Shawnee, Oklahoma, in 1930. By 1932, he joined the Louisville Colonels, where he pitched for six seasons and won 17 games in 1934. In 1939, he won 19 games with the Chattanooga Lookouts, earning a call to the majors with the Washington Senators on September 21, 1939.

Bass faced Cleveland Indians' Al Milnar, pitching six scoreless innings before yielding a two-run homer in the seventh. In the eighth inning, he gave up multiple singles and eventually a double that led to Cleveland's victory, 6–3, ending his major league debut on a losing note. Parts of this game are preserved as one of the oldest baseball broadcasts.

Bass played only one major league game. Returning to Chattanooga after the war, he worked as a purchasing agent for an aluminum company in Ohio and managed amateur teams to four city championships and a world title in 1944. He later pitched and managed minor league teams in Florida and Tennessee until 1948 when he was fired from Kingsport. He then coached women's baseball with the Fort Wayne Daisies of the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League. Bass died in Graceville, Florida, in 1989.