Metairie, La. — This week on Pizza and the Playbook, Baby Cakes Manager Arnie Beyeler joins Karen Loftus at Gio’s Pizza & Spaghetti House to talk New Orleans heat, excessively long national anthems and health-conscious pizza.
KL: “This is your second season with the Baby Cakes. You spent a lot of time up in New England and the Northeast. It’s a little different down here, isn’t it?”
AB: “Yeah, it’s really hot. I live in Florida but it’s pretty hot for these guys in the summer.”
KL: “That’s one thing I haven’t experienced yet. I haven’t been here through a summer. I keep telling everybody I love the weather and they say, ‘You haven’t been through a summer yet.'”
KL: “When was the last time you went to a game as a fan?”
AB: “It’s been a while. Doesn’t happen very often. The last thing I want to do when I get a day off is go watch a baseball game.”
KL: “What’s your coaching style? And if you were to get aggravated, what’s the thing that’s going to set you off to get you tossed?”
AB: “You’ve got to figure out ways– different buttons to push with different players. Everybody’s wired differently and that’s the whole coaching thing. As far as getting thrown out and stuff like that, that kind of just happens. Every once and a while you’ve just got to go get thrown out just to get thrown out.”
KL: “You’ve heard countless national anthems– what’s worse– messing-up the words, or an extremely long rendition?”
AB: “The longs ones. You know our coach in the big leagues there, Perry Hill, times them all. It’s kind of funny how they’ve got a clock on them. You can tell in the first couple of notes how long you’re going to be there for them.”
KL: “You were a communications major at Wichita State. How fun was that and do you see maybe down the road getting back into it?”
AB: “I hope not. It’s kind of obsolete now– all the stuff from when I was doing that with all the digital technology and things of today. But it was fun. I had a good time with it. It got me a degree and hopefully I’ve tricked them with this baseball thing for a few years now so hopefully I can keep doing it for long enough.”
KL: “And it helps you understand what we do then.”
AB: “Oh yeah. I understand it. I get it.”
KL: “Finally, what’s your favorite type of pizza?”
AB: “I’ve always kind of went toward the Hawaiian style but lately kind of gotten into the veggie stuff and trying to be a little more health-conscious.”
KL: “Yeah, you’ve got to get some green stuff.”
AB: “I’m getting old and fat now so I’m into the greens and throw a little chicken on it.”
KL: “Yeah, we’ve got fruit here so we’re good, right?”
AB: “That’s it. Exactly”