NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Internationally renowned multiplatinum recording artist and former Georgetown College baseball player, Billy Ray Cyrus, will join the lineup for the 27th Annual City of Hope Celebrity Softball Game presented by Staples®.
Reba McEntire will sing the National Anthem before iHeart Media and Sirius XM/Grand Ole Opry teams compete during the fan-favorite event during CMA Fest. CLICK HERE for tickets.
Other artists participating in the game are: Craig Morgan, KelliePickler, Bobby Bones with Lunchbox, Eddie, and Ray of the Bobby Bones Show, Sara Evans, Jessie James Decker and her husband and NFL player, Eric Decker, Lauren Alaina, Drew Scott of HGTV’s “Property Brothers,” Cowboy Troy, The Swon Brothers, DanielleBradbery, Aaron Watson, Jackie Lee, Trent Harmon, MaggieRose, Miss Tennessee, Allee-Sutton Hethcoat, Kaitlyn Bristoweand Shawn Booth of ABC’s “The Bachelorette,” Todd Chrisley,Savannah Chrisley, and Chase Chrisley of USA’s “Chrisley Knows Best.”
For the first time, City of Hope will involve legendary artists as play-by-play announcers. Opry announcer and 650 AM morning personality Bill Cody will emcee the event. Cody will be joined by artists Brenda Lee, Lee Greenwood, Jeannie Seely and Tim Rushlow.
A highlight of the event each year is the “meeting on the mound” of a City of Hope patient and donor meeting for the first time. This year, leukemia survivor Nicole Schulz will meet her lifesaving donor at the event.
Schulz was an active student who loved cheerleading and hanging with friends. But at just 14 years old, her carefree lifestyle was cut short: she was diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML), an aggressive disease that rendered her bone marrow 97 percent cancerous. Schulz came to City of Hope, where doctors replaced her malfunctioning marrow cells with healthy marrow from an unrelated donor.
Today, Schulz rides horses and has even gone swimming with sharks in the waters of Hawaii. When she visits the children in the same pediatric ward where she once resided, she tells the young patients to never give up, sharing her own experience as encouragement.
Tickets are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com. As always, 100 percent of event net profits benefit City of Hope. For more information, visit cityofhope.org/softball or follow City of Hope onTwitter, Facebook and Instagram.