Day 18: Paradise Valley

Arizona Diamondbacks head groundskeeper Grant Trenbeath (right) paints the Paradise Valley logo behind home plate on Monday. (Christie Cowles/MLB.com)

With all the talk of baseball and steroids and negative information floating around, its great to read a recent story about what positive effects baseball can bring about to a community. Recently at Paradise Valley High School in Arizona, nearly 50 groundskeepers from 25 of the Major League Baseball Clubs spent their time and many talents in completely upgrading the field.

The groundskeepers were there as part of their annual three-day conference, in which the final day is practiced as "community day" as they graciously use their talents to smooth and rake the dirt, put in new bases, paint logos, baselines, and bring their major league talents to some high school hope for future stars.

To view a slideshow of images at MLB.com, click here.

Today's Baseball Song of the Day is titled, "Paradise Valley" from the artist known as Kostas. You may not be familiar with his name, but the number of hits this man has written for others, puts him in the major league of song writers.

Paradise Valley is a sweet song about longing for a place that remains close to your heart. A wonderfully simple, stripped down acoustical journey through Paradise Valley, Kostas strums his guitar and melodically tells of the beauty of nature and the surroundings of Paradise Valley.

The song actually refers to Paradise Valley, Montana, however with lyrics such as such as, "up over the mountains across the sky, the stars are falling over paradise valley, a lot of wishes, are coming true tonight", and the work that the MLB groundskeepers generously gave, its easy to believe that this season, the Paradise Valley Trojans will be on their own field of dreams.

View the Paradise Press Paradise Valley web site

Kostas Biography from MySpace:

Kostas and his family immigrated to Montana from Greece when he was seven years old. He now has homes in Montana and Nashville, and aside from songwriting and performing, he enjoys hunting, fishing and raising vintage guitars on his "guitar ranch." Kostas received his first No. 1 Country hit with his first single release. The single entitled, "Timber I'm Falling In Love," was recorded by Patty Loveless. He also penned the songs "The Lonely Side Of Love," and "On Down The Line" for her follow-up albums which also reached Top 10.

Kostas went on to write many more Top 10 singles including: "Heart Full Of Love," by Holly Dunn, "Turn It On, Turn It Up, Turn Me Loose," and "Nothing's Changed Here," by Dwight Yoakam, "Lord Have Mercy On The Working Man," by Travis Tritt, "Going Out Of My Mind" and "Love On The Loose, Heart On The Run,” by McBride and The Ride and "Life ..9" by Martina McBride. He also scored two more No. 1 country hits with Dwight Yoakam's "Ain't That Lonely Yet" and Patty Loveless' first Epic release, "Blame It On Your Heart," which was BMI's most performed country song of 1994.

BSOD 18: Paradise Valley
Artist: Kostas
Album: Paradise Valley
Released: January 2006


To hear a sample of the song, click on the album, and on the page that appears, there are links to listen to the song.

I'm going down to Paradise Valley
Spend a little time there
to see an old friend
She's a little bit South
of a town called Bed****
where the wind blows round in circles
and the river never ends

sitting on a rock in yankee jim canyon
looking down the river below
ohhh yankee jim he's looking up at me
telling me stories
from the long ago

cowboys and injuns and wild horses prancin
pretty girls dancing to and fro
the sun wakes up, the young romancers
and lays them down in the soft moon glow

i'm going down to Paradise Valley
to spend a little time there, seeing old friends
just a little bit south of a place called bedrock
where the wind blows in circles
where the river never ends

first time i saw her, she was dressed in August
beautiful as creation, looking so divine
i stayed with her, until the snow fell
and she said it's alright if you leave me behind
if you look out the window, you can see the moonrise

up over the mountains across the sky
the stars are falling over paradise valley
a lot of wishes, are coming true tonight

i'm going down to Paradise Valley
to spend a little time there to see an old friend