David Meadow Ferriss (December 5, 1921 – November 24, 2016) was an American Major League Baseball player who pitched for the Boston Red Sox from 1945 through 1950.

Ferriss received the first full baseball scholarship to Mississippi State University,[5] where he pitched in 1941 and 1942 and joined the Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Shortly afterward, he was drafted into the Army for service in World War II, serving for over two years at Randolph Field in Texas, where he was able to continue playing baseball in a military league.

[2] After an early discharge in February 1945 due to asthma, Ferriss was assigned by the Red Sox to the Louisville Colonels.

[2] When the Red Sox started slowly in 1945, Ferriss was called up and made a spectacular major league debut with a five-hit shutout against the Athletics on April 29.

[6] He went on to set a longstanding American League (AL) record for scoreless innings pitched at the start of a career with 22, which stood until 2008, when it was broken by Brad Ziegler.

His final major league appearance was on Opening Day of the 1950 season, when he pitched only one inning.

In 1988, he received the United States Baseball Federation Service Award for his contributions to the game.

In February 2008, Ferriss welcomed back author John Grisham to Delta State's campus for an athletic fundraiser.