Great Baseball Nicknames- Oil Can- Dennis Boyd. One of the great nicknames of the 1980’s in baseball was that of Dennis Boyd a pitcher for the Boston Red Sox. The nickname was what he was always called -no one ever called him Dennis- it was always Oil Can Boyd. Oil Can Boyd pitched for the Red Sox from 1982-89 before finishing up with Montreal and Texas in 1990- and 1991- his best years were as a Red Sox. In 1986 when the Red Sox went to the World Series he had his finest season going 16-10 with an ERA of 3.78. His career record was 78-77 with a 4.04 ERA.
How did Dennis Boyd from Meridian, Mississippi [ home town of country music legend and pioneer Jimmie Rodgers] get the nickname ‘Oil Can’? There are two versions- one says he got the nickname while pitching at Jackson State-where they called beer- oil. Boyd would drink beer after games. The other version is back in his home town of Meridian where they called beer- oil- that Boyd had the reputation of being able to down one six-pack after another like it was nothing. He was also known to drink a lot of beer before games.
slicethelife 
Funny that I had dinner with the owner of the Texas Rangers on the day the acquired him. We shared a laugh about the name.
Oil Can didn’t have much left by the Rangers- Dubya wasn’t the owner at that time was he?… colorful player
Yes Dubya was the co-owner and I was doing business with his partner at the time and that’s who I was with. I did sit only a few seats away from George at the game that night. He really impressed me in the way he calmed down a very drunk fan who was about to get himself in trouble with security.
Terrific nickname. I thought he was around forever but he only pitched for 10 years.
He had some issues along the way which shortened his career.
Never knew how he acquired that nickname. At least it stopped him from being dubbed “Cokie”.
As a Red Sox fan, Oil Can was fun to have around those years. Unfortunately, not good enough as a #3 starter in the ’86 World Series.
Weird! Just rea AGAIN about Oil Can in an article principally about the Yonkers Hoot Owls, but mentioning him and his part with the Bangor Blue Ox. 🙂
I want to be called “Oil Can”.