Chris Botti Performing "God Bless America" At World Series

Smooth jazz trumpeter Chris Botti will have a national audience on Sunday, Oct. 23, when he performs "God Bless America" in Chicago at U.S. Cellular Field for Game 2 of the World Series. The Chicago White Sox are playing the Houston Astros.

Botti is only too happy to be in the national spotlight. Last year, he was scheuled to perform “God Bless America” during Game 5 of the World Series between the St. Louis Cardinals and Boston Red Sox. But the Red Sox, of course, swept the Series in four games to capture their first championship in 86 years and deny Botti his chance.

"Me and my manager decided that it would be best for our schedule to play Game Five," he recalls. "Who would have ever thought that the St. Louis Cardinals would get swept in four? I think that was the lowest part of my career. We flew into St. Louis and landed during the seventh inning of Game Four and realized that they weren’t going pull it out and go to Game Five. You know, having to sit there in the hotel in St. Louis, which was by then a ghost town with sadness because the Cardinals had lost, was no fun. But that’s the way it goes. And those are the choices you make. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose."

Botti has a brand-new CD out this week called To Love Again.