A Country Star’s Unlikely Journey to Baseball Legend
Country superstar Brad Paisley made headlines not for his music, but for something entirely different. On Monday night, he performed the national anthem during a historic World Series game that lasted 18 innings — a matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. The game ended with the Dodgers winning 6-5 thanks to Freddie Freeman's home run, which came nearly seven hours after Paisley took the stage.
This marathon game tied the record for the longest World Series game in history. But Paisley wasn’t just there for this one — he had already performed the national anthem before the previous record-holder, which occurred seven years and one day earlier. That game was also a Game 3, where the Dodgers defeated the Boston Red Sox. He also sang the anthem before an 11-inning Game 2 at the 2017 World Series and a 10-inning Game 1 in Los Angeles last year.
In a Zoom interview with The Associated Press, Paisley joked about being “Mr. More Baseball” and shared his deep love for the Dodgers. Here are some highlights from the conversation:
How a West Virginia Native Became a Dodger Fan
AP: How does a country superstar from West Virginia become a Dodgers superfan?
PAISLEY: I’ve been living out here part of the time, and I married an actress in 2003. We had a place in Santa Monica and then a place in the Palisades. The first place we ever bought together was in the Palisades, and it burned down this year. I’ve been invested out here since then. That was the club that, you know, is the local team for one of the places we live. We don’t have anything in Nashville except the Sounds (a Triple-A team), which are great. That’s fun, but it’s not major league. So, I would take the kids to these games. I got to know so many people there. It was an easy transition into that. I grew up going to Pirates games. My dad liked the Indians.
Building Bonds with the Dodgers
PAISLEY: To have had a team to invest in, and then become really good friends with Clayton Kershaw, Justin Turner, and these guys… they’re great people. Dave Roberts has become a good friend. A lot of the front office people, Andrew Friedman… we’ve had adventures together. It’s a slow progress to where you’re addicted to something. And I got there pretty quick a while back.
A Record-Breaking Moment
AP: Now you hold a record — having sung the national anthem at the two longest games in World Series history.
PAISLEY: I have a friend who introduced me to Johnny Bench a while back, and I’ve gotten to know him a little bit. I said, “Hey, tell Bench I got one on him in the record books.” But it’s weird. It’s a great feeling, actually, to have been a footnote in something.
It’s kind of cool to know that I sang the anthem at a couple of the four total Dodger walk-off games that ever happened. The other two were before my time anyway. Especially the one that was 18 innings.
Then last night around the 16th inning, I was going, “There’s no way this is happening again.” And here we go. And it was really neat. I sat there in the seat when it ended last night, just staring, like, “OK, what does this even mean?” And then I didn’t even realize until today when a couple of these statisticians started compiling stuff, I’ve never done this and it didn’t go extras. So I said today, I’m available for football games, too. If anybody wants, you know, another quarter or two out of their team.
Expecting the Unexpected
AP: Given your track record, did you expect last night’s game to go extra innings?
PAISLEY: No, I fully expected this to actually be over in nine for maybe the first time in a while.
I am cursed. No, I don’t think so. It’s wild. It’s fun. I think it’s a really fun thing.
AP: Not a curse, but a trend.
PAISLEY: Yeah, let’s definitely not call it a curse because to me, it’s like, it’s definitely one of those weird fun facts that baseball excels in. It is so weird. Just like last night, there’s always something that you’ve never seen before. Like Shohei Ohtani gets on base nine times. That’s got to be the first time in history that’s ever happened.
It’s what Brad Pitt says in “Moneyball.” It’s like, “How can you not be romantic about baseball?”
AP: Absolutely.
PAISLEY: I should be “Mr. More Baseball.” There’s the new nickname.
