Dirt dog is an athletic nickname given to certain baseball players who are considered "scrappy" or blue-collar, hardworking and tenacious and generally rough around the edges.
This title first started in the Boston Red Sox organization in July 2001. The original dirt dogs are widely considered to be Trot Nixon and Brian Daubach by trotdaubach one of the "Original Six" members of the ESPN Message Boards, and is currently a featured contributor at the Red Sox fan site SavedByTheBellhorn.Com . Both players gained great popularity in Boston for this particular style of play. This tag later was stuck to players such as Lou Merloni, Chris Stynes, Bill Mueller, Kevin Youkilis, Dustin Pedroia, Kevin Millar and former captain Jason Varitek. Trot Nixon is still widely accepted as the ultimate dirt dog, for his play, his dirty cap and his pine tar caked helmet.
The first man to refer to the team as "dirt dogs" was former Sox pitcher Paul Quantrill, who at the time played for the Los Angeles Dodgers. Quantrill said "...if they can keep it close, this pack of 'dirt dogs' will find a way to win."
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Famous quotes containing the words dirt and/or dog:
“In a period of a people’s life that bears the designation “transitional,” the task of a thinking individual, of a sincere citizen of his country, is to go forward, despite the dirt and difficulty of the path, to go forward without losing from view even for a moment those fundamental ideals on which the entire existence of the society to which he belongs is built.”
—Ivan Sergeevich Turgenev (1818–1883)
“Pollicle dogs and cats all must
Jellicle cats and dogs all must
Like undertakers, come to dust.
Here a little dog I pause
Heaving up my prior paws,
Pause, and sleep endlessly.”
—T.S. (Thomas Stearns)