Brad Paisley says he's 'Mr. More Baseball' after performing at another World Series marathon game

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?”

PAISLEY: I should be “Mr. More Baseball.” There's the new nickname.

AP MLB: https://apnews.com/hub/MLB

Recording artist Brad Paisley perform the national anthem prior to Game 3 of baseball's World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

Recording artist Brad Paisley perform the national anthem prior to Game 3 of baseball's World Series between the Toronto Blue Jays and the Los Angeles Dodgers, Monday, Oct. 27, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ashley Landis)

LONDON (AP) — Britain's Conservative Party, which governed the country from 2010 until it suffered its worst-ever electoral defeat two years ago, was plunged into fresh turmoil Thursday after its leader sacked the man widely seen as her greatest rival for apparently plotting to defect from the party.

Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said in a video and statement on X that she sacked the party's justice spokesperson Robert Jenrick due to “irrefutable evidence that he was plotting in secret to defect" in a way that was “designed to be as damaging as possible” to the party. Badenoch also ejected Jenrick from the party's ranks in Parliament and suspended his party membership.

“The British public are tired of political psychodrama and so am I,” she said. “They saw too much of it in the last government, they’re seeing too much of it in this government. I will not repeat those mistakes.”

Though Badenoch did not specify which party Jenrick was planning to switch to, Nigel Farage, leader of the hard-right Reform UK party, said he had “of course” had conversations with him.

In the past 12 months, the Conservatives have suffered a string of defections to Reform UK, including some former Cabinet ministers.

Farage said in a press briefing in Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, that coincided with Badenoch's statement that, “hand on heart,” he wasn't about to present Jenrick as the latest Conservative to defect to Reform, an upstart, anti-immigration party.

“I’ll give him a ring this afternoon,” he said. “I might even buy him a pint, you never know.”

The Conservatives are fighting not just the Labour government to their left, but Reform UK to the right.

Reform, which only has a handful of lawmakers in the House of Commons, is tipped to make a major breakthrough in an array of elections this May, including those to the Scottish and Welsh Parliaments, at the expense of both the Conservatives and Labour.

Jenrick, who continued to attract speculation about leadership ambitions despite being beaten in 2024, has appeared more open than Badenoch to the prospect of some sort of deal between the Conservatives and Reform to unite the right in the run-up to next general election, which has to take place by 2029.

Jenrick has yet to respond to the news of his sacking.

Labour Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose favorability ratings have fallen sharply since the general election following a series of missteps, questioned why it took Badenoch “so long” to sack Jenrick given all the speculation that he was looking to either challenge her or to defect to Reform.

Badenoch, a small-state, low-tax advocate, has shifted the Conservatives to the right, announcing policies similar to those of U.S. President Donald Trump, including a promise to deport 150,000 unauthorized immigrants a year.

Her poor poll ratings and lackluster performance in Parliament had stirred speculation that she could be ousted long before the next election.

However, she has been making a better impression in Parliament in recent weeks, particularly during her weekly questioning of Starmer, in a way that appears to have cemented her position as leader.

The party is no stranger to turmoil, having gone through six leaders in the space of 10 years, five of them serving as prime minister. Widespread anger at the way the Conservatives were governing Britain led to their defeat at the general election in July 2024, when they lost around two-thirds of their lawmakers, their worst performance since the modern party was created nearly 200 years ago.

Robert Jenrick speaking at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Robert Jenrick with Reform UK leader Nigel Farage at a Reform UK press conference in Westminster, London, where it was announced the former Conservative MP has joined Reform UK, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (Jordan Pettitt/PA via AP)

Reform Party leader Nigel Farage addresses protesters outside the Iranian embassy, in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)

Kemi Badenoch with Robert Jenrick before being announced as the new Conservative Party leader following the vote by party members at 8 Northumberland Avenue in central London, Nov. 3, 2024. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP)