Skip to content

Former reporter uses Westlock as setting in latest novel

Steven Sandor’s Easy Out aimed at kids ages 10-13 

WESTLOCK – A former Westlock News reporter has used the community as the set- ting for his latest novel, Easy Out.

Steven Sandor worked for the News from 1995/96 and primarily wrote about sports in the community.

Since then Sandor, who’s currently the editor of Avenue Magazine in Edmonton, has gone on to pen 10 novels — eight fiction and two non-fiction. Easy Out, released in February, is just one of a number of his sports-centred books aimed at young adults and is available at www.lorimer.ca, or can be ordered from local bookstores.

“The book was written last year which was my son’s rst year playing rep baseball, ‘AA’. So there were a lot of road trips to Alberta and Saskatchewan and a lot of the stuff that happens in the book was taken from that season,” Sandor explained.

“But it also gave me a chance to reflect on my time in Westlock and what a great baseball town it was with the Red Lions and the Legionnaires. Of any place I worked in, Westlock had the strongest affectation to baseball. If you would have asked me when I worked there if Westlock was a baseball or a hockey town, I would have said baseball.”

The book’s premise almost reads like a story that could have appeared in the pages of the NewsWestlock is an hour north of Edmonton, a prairie town with a long baseball history. But registrations are down, and there are only enough kids in town to field one team. So Mo Montpetit’s team is entered into the Base- ball Alberta AA league.

All the kids registered will be playing rep ball. No tryouts needed.

Mo’s dad is a baseball legend in Westlock. And that’s Mo’s problem. Mo isn’t very good. He can’t hit a rep-level fastball. And as the season starts, the strikeouts and errors mount. The Westlock team loses game after game. How can these kids, not ready for rep ball, compete in a league well above their heads? And how can Mo step out of his dad’s long shadow?

Sandor says Westlock’s rich baseball history helped him round out the novel and he still has fond memories of covering the Midget ‘AA’ Legionnaires provincial championship in August 1995.

“The story is basically about a group of kids whose parents were all part of a provincial championship so I threw some local mentions in, like Mountie Park and the names on the out field walls — the Raus and the Kellers. And I remember the rivalry that was there with Barrhead and that kind of creeps into the book as well.”

The release of Easy Out was stunted due to the COVID-19 outbreak and Sandor says he’s been reaching out to do promotion of the novel. In addition to his novels, Sandor’s work has appeared in over 100 magazines and newspapers in North America, Europe and Africa.

He’s also done broadcasting work, including colour commentary for FC Edmonton and some Canadian Premier League games that don’t involve FC Edmonton. He’s also appeared on Sportsnet, Citytv and OneSoccer and also done regular guest appearances on TSN Radio, CBC and Global Television.

“I was going to do a bigger launch in April and then COVID happened and everything has been put off ... my kid’s own baseball season just started this past month so with baseball starting I figured I’d just start reaching out.”

George Blais, TownandCountryToday.com

push icon
Be the first to read breaking stories. Enable push notifications on your device. Disable anytime.
No thanks