The Dodgers could have any number of people throw out their ceremonial first pitch in every game they play this postseason. This year alone, they’ve had world-famous athletes, K-pop stars, LA icon Kobe Bryant’s daughter Bianka, players’ kids, and so on. An untold number of celebrities have been spotted at Dodger Stadium throughout the season.
But instead of any of the diehard celebrity Dodgers fans out there, the team will instead have…former middle reliever Joe Kelly throw out the first pitch for Game 1 against the Cincinnati Reds.
The Dodgers have a fondness for Kelly that some fans just can’t make sense of. Sure, he spent five years with the club and a pretty good 2021 season, and he technically won two World Series with LA, but he sat out of the entire 2024 run and posted a 4.78 ERA in the regular season. He was also reportedly working up toward a major league tryout with LA this season (he insisted that he would only sign with the Dodgers) that clearly didn’t work out, because he’s still contract-less.
Sounds like the Dodgers said, “Thanks, but no thanks. Would you prefer to throw a single, meaningless, and probably not televised ceremonial pitch instead?”