August 17, 2020
A sweeping historical novel set in the 1888 dawn of professional baseball when Blacks were banned, umpires were routinely beaten, and the game shifted from a collegial pastime of gentlemen to a nasty fight to the death by gritty Irish immigrants. Del Leonard Jones continues to trailblaze a new flavor of historical novel built upon the beloved ballads that have withstood time. The best of work of adult baseball fiction since “The Natural,” Wild West magazine says: “Fans won’t want this fascinating last at-bat ever to end.”
SEPTEMBER 13, 2018
Hear the wisdom of the recent past…
Jack Welch says to fire the bottom ten percent of all workers. Julie Scardina says to treat them all like animals.
Annie Duke, who has been fired by Donald Trump, says that women should welcome men who underestimate them and use it to their advantage.
​
Old-timers don’t mince words…
​
T.J. Rodgers says to never settle a lawsuit no matter how expedient. Quarterback Steve Young says no decision maker ever has perfect information, so quit huddling and put the ball in the air. Mark Cuban uses language that bookstores won’t allow on this back cover.
Business journalist Del Jones – not to be confused with Dow Jones – has sat down with hundreds of CEOs, athletes, coaches and entertainers. He combed through volumes of his interviews, trimmed out the puffery, and bulleted the best leadership tips from sixty-four men and women, most of them recently retired. Among them: Steve Appleton, Brenda Barnes, Larry Brown, John Chambers, Michael Dell, Mike Eruzione, Jamie Houghton, Jeffrey Immelt, Tom Joyner, A.G. Lafley, Ronnie Lott, Howie Mandel, Wynton Marsalis, Thomas Monaghan, Anne Mulcahy, Bob Nardellli, Clarence Otis, Jeff Rich, Sally Ride, Irene Rosenfeld, Ron Sargent, Henry Silverman, Jonathan Schwartz and Sandy Weill.
It’s like having sages around the campfire for an evening…
Fred Smith says to put down this skinny 100-page book and read further back into history. Far further, to Alexander the Great – or at least to Martin Luther King.
“I’m proud to be a part of this book. I’ve fielded unusual questions from the business and sports media. The oddest question ever posed to me was when Del Jones asked if I was spanked as a child.”– Joe Moglia, former CEO of TD Ameritrade, now head football coach at Coastal Carolina University.
September 11, 2018
Fake news is nothing new…
At the behest of newspaper mogul William Randolph Hearst, celebrated correspondent Jayson Kelley goes to Havana in 1898 to report on the escalating tensions in Cuba’s bid for independence. Except most of his front-page stories are fabricated to spread warmongering propaganda and boost readership in journalism’s own circulation war at home. When Jayson meets Sam McGee and his beautiful but aloof sister Luisa, he knows he has his next story, crafting an unbelievable tale of heroism that leaves Sam dead and Luisa on the run. As the Spanish-American War unfolds, Jayson travels from the heat of Havana to the frozen Klondike at the height of the Gold Rush to fulfill an impossible promise he made to the best friend he’s ever known and find the woman who stole his heart.
Based on the poems of Robert W. Service, Del Leonard Jones’s debut novel is a richly-told historical fable about yellow journalism, fame, love, lies and redemption that isn’t too far from the truth—and feels eerily believable in today’s political climate, twenty-four-hour news cycle, and the cutthroat competition for clicks. Sam McGee is an epic battle for the high ground of honesty that continues to this day.
“The Cremation of Sam McGee reminds us again that history repeats itself. The language is stellar, the dialogue terrific, the characters larger than life. Jones does an incredible job.”–T. Greenwood, author of Rust & Stardust.
.jpg)
Dale A. Jones recites
"The Cremation of Sam McGee"
Bottom of the Grand Canyon 1998
DEL LEONARD JONES
CEO
Del Leonard Jones wrote more than 300 cover stories at USA Today and received a Pulitzer Prize nomination for beat reporting. His 93-year-old father recites The Cremation of Sam McGee ballad from childhood memory. Jones is married with two grown children. He officiates high school and collegiate sports in the Washington D.C. area and is writing a second novel inspired by the 1888 ballad Casey At the Bat as told from the umpire’s point of view. He is available to speak on topics including the 1880s dawn of professional baseball, the poetry of Robert W. Service, Casey at the Bat by Earnest Thayer, the Spanish-American War, the Klondike Gold Rush, and the yellow journalism of the 1890s vs. today’s fake news.
