Brad Paisley Calls Himself ‘Mr. More Baseball’ After Playing National Anthem Before Another Marathon World Series Game

Nobody is saying there is a direct connection, but it sure seems like whenever Brad Paisley performs the national anthem before a World Series game things tend to go long. The “When I Get Where I’m Going” singer sang the “Star-Spangled Banner” at Dodger Stadium on Monday (Oct. 27) in game three of the World Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Toronto Blue Jays, there was no way to know that the contest would stretch into a record-tying 18 innings over more than six-and-a-half hours, with the Dodgers ending up with a 6-5 victory.

Well, unless you’ve been paying attention and clocked that it was the fourth time Paisley had done the honors, with each one of those games going into extra innings: 11 innings for game 2 in 2017, 18 innings for game 3 in 2018 and 10 innings in game one in 2024.

Speaking to the Associated Press on Tuesday (Oct. 28), Paisley revealed whether, given his track record, he suspected Monday’s game would go long. “No, I fully, I fully expected this to actually be over in nine for maybe the first time in a while, you know,” he said, adding, “I am cursed. No, I don’t think so. … It’s wild. It’s fun. I think it’s a really fun thing.”

Paisley said that actually, instead of being a curse, he considers his extra inning run as one of those “weird fun facts that baseball excels in… It’s what Brad Pitt says in Moneyball. It’s like, ‘How can you not be romantic about baseball?’”

In fact, Paisley is so into his unique status as baseball’s extra inning man that he’s given himself a new nickname: “Mr. More Baseball.”

“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,” Paisley said, noting that around the 16th inning on Monday he thought, “‘There’s no way this is happening again.’” The day after, the singer said he saw a couple of statisticians note that he’s never performed at a World Series game that didn’t go into extra innings. “I’m available for football games, too,” he joked. “If anybody wants, you know, another quarter or two out of their team.”

Though Paisley is a West Virginia native, he said marrying wife actress Kimberly-Williams Paisley in 2003 and having a home in the Los Angeles area has made him a de facto Dodgers die-hard. “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,” he said of his other go-to teams.

He noted that he’s also become friendly with a few Dodgers players, including pitcher Clayton Kershaw and infielder Justin Turner, as well as team manager Dave Roberts. “We’ve had adventures together,” Paisley said. “It’s a slow progress to where you’re addicted to something. And I got there pretty quick a while back.”