Richard Dale Long (February 6, 1926 – January 27, 1991) was an American first baseman in Major League Baseball with the Pittsburgh Pirates, St. Louis Browns, Chicago Cubs, San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees and Washington Senators between 1951 and 1963.

[1] A native of Springfield, Missouri, Long graduated from high school in Adams, Massachusetts, and turned down an offer from the Green Bay Packers to play football, opting instead for a baseball contract.

He got into one game at age 18 for the top-level Milwaukee Brewers of the American Association during the wartime 1944 season, then began his career in earnest in 1945 in the Cincinnati Reds' organization.

During his spring training with the 1951 Pirates, the southpaw first baseman was convinced to try catching by the club's general manager, Hall of Famer Branch Rickey.

[1] Long performed this feat in a pair of Cubs losses at Wrigley Field, during the first game of a doubleheader versus the Pirates on August 20 and on September 21 against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

His pinch single in the ninth inning of Game 7 helped the Yankees tie the score at 9–9, but that only set the stage for Bill Mazeroski's Series-winning blow in the Pittsburgh half of the frame.

Long was selected by the "new" Washington Senators in the 1960 Major League Baseball expansion draft, and was the club's regular first baseman during its maiden 1961 season.

He was a late-inning substitute for regular Bill Skowron in Game 1, and drove in an insurance run with a single in the eighth inning of the Yankees' 6–2 victory.