Flippo's used to have only batting cages, but now the place is full of arcade games as well.
“There’s always one really serious or good baseball player in a family and everybody has to wait for them to finish hitting, but now they can go ahead and play while they’re hitting,” said new owner Larry Guesno.
Guesno played baseball at Long Beach State back in the 70s, but his passion for the game started long before that.
“The Dodgers would send to each one of his clinics a couple of Dodgers and so when I was 12, I got to catch Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale," Guesno said. "It was really amazing. It was so exciting."
Guesno bought the RV park at Atascadero Road and Park Street in June 2016 and it came with the Flippo's building. He leased out the Flippo's portion until March 2025 and when that expired, he decided to connect his passion for baseball and background in business to create the new entertainment space.
The remodeling phase took a while, tearing up the floor, putting in new lighting, replacing the nets and pitching machines, and adding the arcade games. It came out to an approximately $800,000 investment.
The place was closed for 10 months before it opened back up in December with its official grand opening on January 23 at 1 p.m.
Mary Weston works at Flippo's and says that reaction from the community has been great. She explained what it looked like over winter break.
“It was raining outside and no one had a place to go to," Weston said. "So, they came in here and they just had an awesome time with the arcade games. It was pretty packed in here.”
Guesno has coached around the area, including at Pioneer Valley High School and Morro Bay High School. And even at 76 years old, he still has that fire for coaching.
“I just love to teach kids how to hit home runs, which is the most fun of baseball,” Guesno said.
Flippo's plans to support local sports by doing sponsorships and creating fundraising opportunities.
