The 6'4" 210-lb Redding may have been the hardest-throwing pitcher in black baseball history. Negro Leaguer Jesse Hubbard said Redding had a better fastball than did Satchel Paige or Cum Posey. Frank Forbes, Cannonball's teammate on the 1914 New York Lincoln Giants, said, "Dick Redding was like Walter Johnson. Nothing but speed." Like Johnson, Redding did not develop a curveball until late in his career. He used the hesitation delivery decades before Paige made it famous, balancing on one foot with his back to the hitter before cutting loose his devastating fastball.
In his first season, 1911, Redding reeled off 17 consecutive wins. Through 1914, he teamed with Smokey Joe Williams to give the New York Lincoln Giants one of the all-time-great one-two pitching punches. He went 43-12 in 1912, including a 17-strikeout perfect game against the Eastern League Jersey Skeeters. He struck out 24 in defeating a United States League team. Jumping to the Lincoln Stars in 1915, he won 20 straight, including several games against major league all-star squads. In that year's Black World Series, he went 3-1 with a shutout over the Chicago American Giants, and batted .385.