Willie Mays said that good players can play with their bodies, but great players play with their hearts and minds as well. The same is true for fathering. In Covering Home, author Jack Petrash combines a love for children with his love for the game of baseball to give fathers, or fathers-to-be, a new perspective on raising children.

The Baltimore Orioles had a unique outfielder once named Ken Singleton, and he had an unusual habit: whenever he stepped up to bat, he would reach down and pick up three pebbles. These pebbles were a reminder that each time he batted he was entitled to three good pitches. This act heightened his awareness, and increased his patience and discipline as a hitter.

I think fathers need a similar ritual. We should stop before our front door when we are about to make the transition to our children's world and imagine that we are about to pick up three stones. At this moment we should remind ourselves that we are going to spend these three hours with the most important people in the world.

-from Covering Home . . .

Quotes on the hardcover edition:

"Will immediately become the kind of book passed on from friend to friend, from father to father, and from father to son or daughter. . . . There are many more detailed books on fatherhood that are essential for a dad's -library, but none so precious as this small wonder."-Publishers Weekly

"Petrash delivers more than just tips about patience and preparation, timing and tolerance. Like a veteran manager, he hands out inspiration and discipline in equal measures, and shows us how we can be more than we ever imagined."-Utne Reader

Sound advice for dealing with kids from grade school through the teenage years.--USA Today Baseball Weekly Holiday Gift Guide

Petrash poignantly brings the field of dreams down to earth for fathers. He loads the bases of parenting with relevant truisms and then brings them home with practical lessons.--Washington Post

will immediately become the kind of book passed on from friend to friend, from father to father, and from father to son or daughterThere are many more detailed books on fatherhood that are essential for a dads library, but none so precious as this small wonder.Publishers Weekly

"I have so many memories throughout my life that have been provided through baseball, but the strongest ones are those provided by my father. Almost all of the life lessons that my brothers, sister and I learned from dad were related to us through baseball. Jack Petrash seems to have captured that deep connection between fathers, their children, and baseball in Covering Home." --Cal Ripken, Jr.

Jack Petrash was born and raised in New York City. Deeply involved with the fathering movement in the United States, he writes for numerous parenting and education publications, and speaks before audiences around the U.S. and Canada on the subject. For the past 25 years he has lived in the Washington, D.C. area, where he has taught grade school. He is married and the father of three, including two collegiate-level ballplayers.