Joe Kelly knows an internet sensation when he sees one, but he took things to the next level with the latest viral star.
The Boston Red Sox pitcher caused a stir Monday morning when he announced he had left playoff tickets for Ken Bone, an audience member at Sunday’s second U.S. presidential debate in St. Louis who since has become America’s darling.
The Red Sox, of course, lost Game 3 of the American League Division Series to end their season, and Bone wasn’t there to witness it. But Kelly confirmed Tuesday that he did, in fact, leave tickets for the debate star, and explained why with some pretty solid reasoning.
“Obviously, playing for St. Louis before, I just felt in my heart that I needed to leave an American hero tickets,” Kelly, who spent three seasons with the Cardinals, told WEEI.com’s Rob Bradford at Fenway Park.
“Obviously, the game didn’t end up the way we wanted to,” Kelly said. “He probably didn’t see it. All those Twitter accounts must be fake because he was using a (disposable) camera at the end of the night, so I doubt that he saw it. Maybe he heard it. One kid on Twitter told me that his grandma was next-door neighbors with him, so he would tell his grandma to tell him. Maybe next year or one day down the road we can meet up, hang out and share a couple of conversations.”
We’d like to be flies on the wall for those conversations.
It’s a shame the Red Sox didn’t advance in postseason, either. According to Kelly, he planned to keep leaving Bone playoff tickets as long as Boston kept winning.
“One hundred percent,” Kelly said. “If we won (Game 3), I would have had to leave them throughout the World Series.”
Thumbnail photo via Bob DeChiara/USA TODAY Sports Images
