{"id":541216,"date":"2026-01-27T21:40:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:40:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541216\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:40:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:40:16","slug":"joe-kelly-reveals-why-dodgers-cant-take-down-his-mural","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/541216\/","title":{"rendered":"Joe Kelly Reveals Why Dodgers Can&#8217;t Take Down His Mural"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Along the left-field reserve level at Dodger Stadium lies a mural featuring former Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe Kelly.<\/p>\n<p>The <a href=\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/former-dodgers-reliever-joe-kelly-reluctantly-reveals-hes-retiring-from-baseball\/2025\/12\/22\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">recently-retired<\/a> Kelly revealed why the Dodgers can never take down his mural.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDude, there\u2019s no way they take it down. You know why? This is why. Because ever since that mural\u2019s been up, the Dodgers have won a World Series. You take it down, you\u2019re gonna lose World Series. They\u2019re gonna jinx it,\u201d Kelly told AM 570 Sports.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly fair warned the Dodgers that they shouldn\u2019t take down his mural, mainly as a superstition amidst the team\u2019s quest of completing the three-peat in 2026.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, you take that mural down\u2026 let\u2019s see if they win the World Series,\u201d Kelly said.<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1200\" height=\"799\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/Former-Los-Angeles-Dodgers-relief-pitcher-Joe-Kelly.jpg\" alt=\"Former Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly stepping out to throw the ceremonial first pitch at Dodger Stadium in 2025.\" class=\"wp-image-296058\"  \/>Sep 30, 2025; Los Angeles, California, USA; Former Los Angeles Dodgers pitcher Joe Kelly throws the ceremonial first pitch before the game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Cincinnati Reds during game one of the Wildcard round for the 2025 MLB playoffs at Dodger Stadium.Why is Joe Kelly\u2019s Nickname \u2018Mariachi Joe\u2019?<\/p>\n<p>The mural at Dodger Stadium features \u201cMariachi Joe,\u201d a nickname Kelly famously received after trading his game-worn jersey for a Mariachi group\u2019s jacket in 2021.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly then wore the mariachi jacket during the Dodgers\u2019 visit of the White House and most recently threw out the ceremonial first pitch in L.A. sporting the iconic outfit during the Wild Card Series against the Cincinnati Reds last season.<\/p>\n<p>Did Joe Kelly Retire?<\/p>\n<p>While Kelly was reluctant to state he was retiring ahead of the 2026 season, the veteran revealed he didn\u2019t have plans to continue his playing career.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI ain\u2019t playing,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/former-dodgers-reliever-joe-kelly-reluctantly-reveals-hes-retiring-from-baseball\/2025\/12\/22\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Kelly told Rob Bradford<\/a> on\u00a0the Baseball Isn\u2019t Boring podcast.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s no such thing as retirement for athletes. Retiring is something my grandmother did. Let\u2019s cancel the word retirement, it\u2019s used for people who served in the military, for people who worked til 65. You guys deserve to retire, athletes don\u2019t.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kelly spent parts of five seasons with the Dodgers, making 161 appearances and tossing 147.2 innings since joining the organization in 2019. He produced a 3.72 ERA during his Dodgers tenure.<\/p>\n<p>The reliever expressed interest in returning to the mound last season, but an opportunity never materialized.<\/p>\n<p>Kelly leaves the game as a two-time World Series champion, winning his first ring in 2018 as a member of the Boston Red Sox and his second ring with the Dodgers in 2020.<\/p>\n<p> <img decoding=\"async\" class=\"sab-icon\" src=\"https:\/\/dodgersnation.com\/path\/to\/app-icon.png\" alt=\"App icon\" onerror=\"this.style.display='none'\"\/><\/p>\n<p>LA Baseball Report<\/p>\n<p>Get the app for faster news<\/p>\n<p> <a id=\"sab-cta\" class=\"sab-cta\" href=\"#\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">GET<\/a> \u00d7    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Along the left-field reserve level at Dodger Stadium lies a mural featuring former Los Angeles Dodgers reliever Joe&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":538491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2406],"tags":[5,39,8650,1165,4332,4333,774,57,3224,4331,4],"class_list":{"0":"post-541216","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles-dodgers","8":"tag-baseball","9":"tag-dodgers","10":"tag-joe-kelly","11":"tag-la","12":"tag-la-dodgers","13":"tag-ladodgers","14":"tag-los-angeles","15":"tag-los-angeles-dodgers","16":"tag-losangeles","17":"tag-losangelesdodgers","18":"tag-mlb"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@mlb\/115969237923095042","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541216","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=541216"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/541216\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/538491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=541216"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=541216"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/mlb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=541216"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}