Dirt Dog
Dirt dog is an athletic nickname given to certain baseball players who are considered "scrappy" or blue-collar, hard working 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."
In popular media
The BostonDirtDogs.com blog, which is owned by the New York Times Company (and affiliated with The Boston Globe), started out as a Boston Red Sox fan website.