SURPRISE, Ariz. -- There’s a lot more to new Royals manager Mike Matheny than just his baseball life.

So, just for fun, MLB.com posed 10 mostly non-baseball questions to Matheny to find out a little bit more about the new skipper as a person:

1) Favorite pig-out food?
Pizza.

2) Wine, beer or cocktails?
Wine. I love a good cabernet. Maybe this will turn into gifts?

3) Favorite thing you do to relax?
During the season, after a game, if I have everything taken care of, I always bring a guitar with me (a six-string or electric). I play at the end of the night. I hate turning the TV on. I feel I get officially dumber with the TV on. I’m not good with the guitar. My kids think I’m good and that’s all that matters. They are my only audience.

4) Favorite all-time baseball movie? And favorite overall movie?
It’s changed over time after having kids, so I’d say “Sandlot.” For favorite overall movie, I’ve got a top five, but I’ll say “A River Runs Through It” -- great story about family.

5) Last book you read?
“Multipliers: How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter.” A current Navy Seal turned me on to it so I read it right before we got here.

6) If you hadn’t gone into baseball you’d be …
I was actually really close to going into the military at one point. My best friend went. If the scholarship (at Michigan) hadn’t gone through, I was going into the military.

7) Dogs or cats?
Dogs. I have a German Shepherd and the other is the coolest looking little dog, it looks like a miniature Husky. It’s half Pomeranian and half Husky. He has the bright blue eyes like a Husky. It’s called a Pomsky. He thinks he’s the king of the world, he really does.

8) What’s the last thing you fixed in your house without having to call a handyman?
That’s a bad question for me because I have serious pride issues and I think I can fix anything. I will do electrical and I will do plumbing, but with plumbing, someone has to come check it out afterward. I do anything with carpentry -- that’s one of my hobbies in the offseason, building furniture. We’ve done some lodge/cabins from the ground up, too. I like to learn so if I do have to bring in a handyman, I’m in their back pocket the whole time, trying to learn.

9) If you could go back in time, what era would you like to visit?
My grandfather’s era, the World War II era. Those guys, that generation, fascinate me. You just think about the history of time, there hasn’t been more change than one generation has witnessed, than that generation. All they had to go through. Going through the Depression, going through World War II, their fathers probably went to World War I, too. Amazing what that generation did.

10) Who were your mentors?
Tony La Russa, Bruce Bochy, Whitey Herzog and Joe Torre. Those were the four guys I could call at any time. Pretty good name-dropping, huh?