First Avenue: What’s your name?
Jesse Sawyer.
FA: How are you affiliated with the Turf Club?
JS: I’m the manager of the Turf’s softball team.
FA: How old were you when you first started coming here?
JS: You really want to know that? 19. Nick Schwartzman from Tampa, Florida was my fake ID, and it was *really* good to the credit of the wonderful bouncers at the time. I remember when I came here and celebrated my 21st birthday, my good friend who was bartending was just like, “Really dude? What the fuck?”
FA: How’d you end up managing the softball team if you’ve never worked here?
JS: At the time I was living a block away and I came here pretty much every afternoon and a friend of mine who I was in a band with at the time knew I’d played baseball and he was like, “You know, the Turf Club has a softball team…” and a lightbulb went off in my head and I was like, “Oh my god, I can combine my two favorite things!”
FA: Which are?
JS: Baseball and alcoholism. I came down one afternoon and they were having a memorial for the former catcher, Carl, who unfortunately passed away at a very early age, and I came to the thing and hung out with them and drank and told them I played ball and that’s… when I joined the team.
FA: So you started by attending a wake.
JS: Basically, yes. And I took over Carl’s position as catcher. Now I play shortstop.
FA: What does managing entail?
JS: Making sure people don’t get kicked off the field and that they don’t fight each other in the dugout. Thus far I’ve been mostly successful.
FA: Do you get a prize for winning the league?
JS: No. I think the prize is just brotherhood
and hangovers. And we are strong.
FA: What are you excited about in life right now?
JS: I have a novella getting published by Revolver, probably in March or May. I’m meeting with my editors this week to finish up some edits. It’s extremely exciting not just because that’s going to come out, but also I can move on and do some other stuff I’m really excited about right now in terms of writing.
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Jesse is a writer (start here: jabrwcky), musician, quasi-librarian, and huge Mason Jennings fan. You know where to find him.
