Joe Kelly: troops have rallied in support of suspended pitcher

After the announcement Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly would be suspended eight games, players began coming to his defense.

This is not really a story of going from the outhouse to the penthouse, though the media coverage Joe Kelly is getting is probably much more to his liking than the last time he drew headlines.

Remember Joe Kelly. He gave up the grand slam to Howie Kendrick in the tenth inning of a decisive Game 5 last year, sending the Los Angeles Dodgers to an early playoff exit.

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Prior to that, Kelly was best known for instigating brawls in the explosive New York Yankees/Boston Red Sox rivalry.

Scuffling and chirping is what has the reliever back in the news after he airmailed a high nineties heater over Alex Bregman’s head and then jawed with Carlos Correra after striking the latter out.

Word came down Kelly would be suspended eight games for his part in the brawl. Well, there really wasn’t a brawl. Suspended for initiating a benches-clearing war or words let say.

Not long after, word broke Kelly would be sitting, current and former baseball players hit social media in his defense. The outrage varied from the length of the suspension (the equivalent of 21 games in a regular 162 game season), getting a suspension without hitting anyone, to jokes of the Houston Astros players getting off the hook for cheating their way to the World Series.

The support rang out from hitters and pitchers alike. Some, like Frank Viola, seem to back the efforts of Kelly, believing he was upholding the unwritten rules of the game. Jerry Hairston Jr. clamored for “justice” for what the Astros did.

Baseball has proven over and over to be a band of brothers. Very few people have broken this trust, and ironically it was Mike Fiers who put the first domino in motion which has allowed all the following dominos to fall.

Joe Kelly went from a middling late-inning reliever who ended the Dodgers hopes and dreams a year ago, to an overnight celebrity for wielding messages with high fastballs.