If you ever see Brad Paisley hitting the field before a World Series game to sing the national anthem, you better cancel any morning meetings the following day.
The country music star now has a rather odd claim to fame: He has sung The Star-Spangled Banner before the two longest games in World Series history.
Paisley belted out the U.S. national anthem before Monday night’s 18-inning Game 3 marathon between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Toronto Blue Jays, and filled the same role prior to the record-setting affair between the Dodgers and Boston Red Sox in 2018.
Even more curiously, Paisley has now sung the anthem at four World Series games that have gone into extra innings. The Whiskey Lullaby hitmaker, who is a big Dodgers fan, played before Game 2 in 2017 (11 innings) and Game 1 in 2024 (10 innings).
While Monday’s game and the 2018 marathon both lasted 18 innings – and both ended with the hometown Dodgers coming out on top – the 2018 edition still holds the record as the longest World Series game, clocking in at seven hours and 20 minutes.
Thanks to the introduction of the pitch clock, Game 3 on Monday only took a brisk six hours and 39 minutes before Freddie Freeman’s walkoff homer.
While many fans found the coincidence of the Paisley Curse humorous, others online seemingly valued their sleep more.
“Never let this man near an mlb stadium again,” one fan wrote on X.
“Please only allow him to sing on Friday nights in the future,” another joked.
Paisley’s “cursed” performance wasn’t the only anthem gripe from Dodger Stadium on Monday night, either.
Toronto singer-songwriter JP Saxe went viral after his “deplorable” rendition of O Canada.
The Grammy-nominated Saxe’s pitchy performance was immediately panned on social media with viewers at home trashing his voice and his decision to change some of the lyrics to the 145-year-old anthem.
“This was a fail,” one person wrote, while another added, “This is embarrassing for the MLB.”
“That man … butchered the f— out of a beautiful anthem,” a third person swiped.
Other commenters advised Saxe to “stay away” from the internet and “get off the field.”
Saxe also caught flak for changing the lyrics to O Canada, switching “our home and native land” to “our home on native land.”
“As soon as he said ‘Our home ON native land’ I switched it off!” one critic fumed, with a second adding, “This guy is not a true Canadian. He butchered our Anthem and injected woke bulls— into the lyrics. Absolutely deplorable.”
A third advised: “The thing about singing the anthem is that you don’t get to just make up the words & then do it that poorly.”
As for the anthem singers for Game 4 on Wednesday night, Tinashe is set to perform the U.S. anthem while Toronto’s own Deborah Cox will sing O Canada.
Tinashe, an R&B singer and actress is best known for her 2014 single, 2 On featuring Schoolboy Q.
Cox, who was inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 2022, is a Grammy-nominated R&B singer best known for her platinum hit Nobody’s Supposed to Be Here.
–With files from Mark Daniell