Joe Kelly’s persistent animosity toward the Houston Astros players has more to do with how they treat the character shot investigation than the actual cheat itself, the Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher said in his first comprehensive interview since his on-field incident July 28. in Houston.
In Kelly’s eyes, the Houston players, who were granted immunity to discipline in exchange for collaborating with the investigation, sacrificed their managers, coaches and team managers, who took the hit for the players’ offenses.
Kelly made his remarks as a guest on “The Big Swing,” a podcast hosted by teammate Ross Stripling, which was taped earlier in August, before Kelly’s appeal of his discipline was heard by Major League Baseball.
Kelly was suspended for eight games and fined after throwing a ball near the head of Astros’ third baseman Alex Bregman, then taunting shortstop Carlos Correa during a July 28 game in Houston, which started with a bank-clearing brawl. Kelly appealed the discipline, but MLB reduced the suspension to five games.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts was suspended for one game and Astros manager Dusty Baker was fined an unintentional amount after that game.
Kelly was not a member of the Dodgers in 2017, when the Astros beat Los Angeles to win the World Series, but in 2018, Kelly set up for Boston Red Sox manager Alex Cora, who had been the Houston bench coach . Cora was heavily involved in the findings of the sign-stealing investigation and was suspended for the 2020 season, along with Houston manager AJ Hinch, Houston general manager Jeff Luhnow and veteran slugger Carlos Beltran, who were hired to manage the New York Mets for the 2020 season. Cora, Hinch, Luhnow and Beltran lost their respective jobs after the release of the findings.
“The people who took the fall for what happened is nonsense,” Kelly said. “Yes, everyone is involved. But the way the (sign-stealing system) was handled was not by coaching staff. … They are not the main boss managing the thing. It is the players. That now Players get the immunity “and all they do is sneak like a little bitch, and they do not have to be fined, they do not have to lose games.”
“If you take someone’s right to exist … to save your own ass, that’s what I do not like. Cheats? They cheat. Everyone knows they are cheaters. They know they are cheaters. It’s over. That’s done with it. But now she’s ruining it by ruining other people’s lives so she’s twice f —– … If you swear someone’s name to save your own name is “this one of the worst things you can probably do. … That really friggin ‘bugs me. I think I’ll be annoyed forever.”
Kelly talked about how much he cared about Cora, and how Cora’s life was changed by the fallout. Cora would like to explain what happened, Kelly said, “but he did not, because he is a respectable man. So when (the Astros) lie” – by blaming employees – “that does not sit well with me . “
“Maybe they called AC (Cora) and said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry.’ Or cried Luhnow and said, ‘Hey, I’m sorry. Or Hinch called, and (Carlos) Beltran … … If they had said, ‘Hey, I’m super scared, I did not know what to do, I did not want to lose money, I had to rate.’ … Grow a few balls and say that. “
Kelly said he did not want to talk to the Astros players, “because they are not respectable men to me.”
As for his suspension, Kelly said he thought it was ‘crazy’ in the face of what was happening on the field. Kelly hit no one, and was not sent out or even warned by flat umpire Alfonso Marquez. “It still blows my mind,” Kelly said. “It’s so overwhelming.”
Kelly said MLB’s conclusion that he pushed the Astros out of their dugout with his actions and gesture is “complete bull —-.”
“I socially distanced myself. I ran away. I did not get close, and I followed all the guidelines of the CDC, and people on the other side (the Astros) did not. … They ran out of their dugout, ran to to us. Carlos Correa f —— squirts at our team. I do not know if it was me (he). He squirts out of his mouth …. This man runs over to our dugout and then spits while I all the rules follow, and I get eight games. “
“They have a manager (Dusty Baker) by their side, verbatim, yelling at me, ‘Get your little skinny ass on the mound.’ That my cuss words get eight games, and his cuss words get zero? That makes full sense, right? Welcome to planet earth. A debacle. “
In his interview on the podcast with Kelly, Stripling said he works in the same spot in the offseasons as Houston outfielder George Springer, but the two have not really interacted – and Stripling has not really decided how he will deal with the Astros. players who were part of the team that was determined to cheat.
Stripping described how the apologies given by the Astros in the spring training – perceived by many players as insignificant – evoked the feelings of the Dodgers. “It just lit up a fire among us all again,” Stripling said. “If a team is beaten by that team, you will never get over it. You will absolutely never get over it.”
Kelly distinguished strongly between what the Astros were determined to do in 2017 – real-time character transfer, pitch-to-pitch – as opposed to what the Red Sox, Yankees and other teams did in video and post-game video studios, which he called it “fair game”.
“What (the Astros did) give direct feedback on signs is not an honest game,” Kelly said.
As for Kelly’s actions in the July 28 game, after he knocked out Correa, Kelly wrote to Correa, who responded, Kelly made what he called a “boo-hoo face” on the shortstop of the Astros. Kelly told Stripling that if he complains to Ashley Parks, his wife, that she will make that face to him to reduce his crying.
“When Carlos stepped out against me again,” Kelly said, “he felt the boo-hoo face just because it sounded just like he was complaining. I was, ‘Ohhhh, boo-hoo.’ To me, it sounded like a lot of crying, and I know exactly how my wife feels. “
“It felt right at the moment. It was spur of the moment; it’s not like your game plan for that kind of thing. … It was my interpretation that he was acting like a child at that point, and I wanted to give him a face of a little child. “
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