Country superstar Brad Paisley made history Monday night — and this time, it wasn't for platinum records.
The singer performed the national anthem during a landmark World Series game — an 18-inning matchup between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays. The Dodgers won 6-5 on Freddie Freeman's homer than ended Game 3 nearly seven hours after Paisley performed.
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That marathon tied the record for longest World Series game, and Paisley performed the anthem before the previous one, too. That was seven years and one day prior, when the Dodgers outlasted the Boston Red Sox, also in a Game 3. He also performed the anthem before an 11-inning Game 2 at the 2017 World Series and a 10-inning Game 1 in LA last year.
In an interview over Zoom with The Associated Press on Tuesday, Paisley declared himself “Mr. More Baseball” and discussed his adoration for the Dodgers. This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
AP: How does a country superstar from West Virginia become a Dodgers superfan?
PAISLEY: Living out here part of the time, marrying an actress in — we got married in 2003 and had a little place in Santa Monica and then a place in the Palisades, the first place we ever bought together was in the Palisades and it’s since burned down this year ... I’ve been invested out here since then. And that was the club that, you know, that’s the local team for one of the places we live. Like we don’t have anything in Nashville except the Sounds (a Triple-A team), which are great. That’s fun, but that’s not major league. And so, yeah, I would take the kids to these games. I got to know so many people there. ... It was just an easy transition into that. I grew up going to Pirates games. My dad liked the Indians.
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.
AP: And 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 (Hall of Fame catcher) Johnny Bench a while back, and I’ve gotten to know Johnny a little bit. And 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, at the two of the four total Dodger walk-off games that ever happened. The other two were before my time anyway. ... And 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 in the seat when it ended last night, just staring, like, “OK, what does this even mean?” And then I didn’t even realize 'til 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.
AP: Given your track record, did you expect last night's game to go extra innings?
PAISLEY: No, I fully, I fully expected this to actually be over in nine for maybe the first time in a while, you know.
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, it’s 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.
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AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB