Ashley Kelly, the wife of Los Angeles Dodgers relief pitcher Joe Kelly, has a good reason to be in the holiday spirit after offering up her husband’s No. 17 to new acquisition Shohei Ohtani via a social media campaign.
Her gift to Ohtani was reciprocated Saturday, with Ohtani delivering a new silver Porsche to a stunned Ashley Kelly in return.
A video that the Dodgers posted to social media Saturday night showed Ashley opening the front door to see the new car parked at the curb.
“It’s yours. From Shohei,” the delivery driver told her. “He wanted to gift you a Porsche.”
Ashley Kelly publicly lobbied for Ohtani to sign with the Dodgers with her #Ohtake17 social media campaign. She comically reached out to Ohtani, showing him all the No. 17 garb in the family’s closets that could be converted for use by him and his family. She even offered to rename the couple’s baby, Kai, to ShoKai.
After Ohtani signed a record 10-year, $700 million deal with the Dodgers earlier this month, Kelly posted a video on Instagram of her throwing all her No. 17 Kelly garb on her front lawn and then drawing a “Kelly 99” on the back of her husband’s shirt with a Sharpie.
Joe Kelly, who had worn No. 17 since 2019, has officially given up the number to Ohtani, who wore that number during his six seasons with the Los Angeles Angels.
The veteran reliever now will don No. 99 for the Dodgers.
“I wasn’t going to give it up to just anybody,” Kelly said after Ohtani was announced as his new teammate. “If Shohei keeps performing, he’ll be a future Hall of Famer and I’ll be able to have my number retired. That’s the closest I’ll get to the Hall of Fame.”
Field Level Media and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: www.espn.com