Skip to main content

Dodgers Manager Dave Roberts Reveals a Wild Joe Kelly Story

Joe Kelly is controlled chaos.

Joe Kelly has been know to be a little erratic on the mound sometimes. It's fitting that he selected No. 99 and suddenly brought in comparisons to Rick Vaughn from the cult classic "Major League."

It doesn't stop there. 

Kelly will take the mound this season with "Wild Thing" as his warm-up song, just like Vaughn.

The difference between Kelly and Charlie Sheen's character is that Kelly is purposefully wild. 

Just ask manager Dave Roberts, who offered some insight on the PosCast with Joe Posnanski and Michael Schur.

“Joe has that ability like some people do, to kind of be outside of things, and hear things, see things, have conversations, throw behind hitters’ heads, and then still lock back in to the job at hand. There was one moment where Joe … comes in the game and goes, ‘Hey Doc, I’m going to throw the first one to the backstop but don’t worry this is intentional. I give him the ball. Go back to the dugout. The first one goes to the backstop. I’m like ‘oh boy, here we go.’ But he called his shot.”

Dave Roberts vis PosCast

Kelly and his pitching teammates report to spring training in Glendale, Ariz., on Sunday. Hopefully he saves the wild pitches for when he's not throwing to his Dodger teammates.