Beloved character actor Brian Baumgartner, best known for playing the dim-witted, chili-spilling accountant Kevin Malone on The Office, apparently has a place in Dodgers lore for the role he played in the team's busy offseason spending spree.
Baumgartner is casually mentioned as Dave Roberts' golfing buddy in a deep-dive Athletic piece on all of the Dodgers' offseason wheelings and dealings, and was privy to one of the biggest moments of free agency as a result.
Brad Paisley, the country music star, is a well-known Dodgers super fan and gets most of the celebrity love in the piece, though Baumgartner seems to be in the thick of the offseason drama for the boys in blue as well.
As Dave Roberts' golfing buddy, Baumgartner is mentioned as being by the Dodger manager's side during a low point of the offseason — on a day when rumors were swirling that Shohei Ohtani was going to sign with the Toronto Blue Jays.
This of course proved to be false and Ohtani did ultimately sign with the Dodgers, but on this particular day, Roberts was in hot water for admitting recently that Ohtani had met with the Dodgers — which violated the apparent request from Ohtani's camp for all free agency meetings to remain secret.
Roberts and Dodgers' president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman therefore feared they may have hurt their chances to sign Ohtani with the verbal slip, which is precisely when Baumgartner found himself on the golf course with a distracted Roberts. Needless to say, Roberts' golf game suffered mightily that round.
Baumgartner and Roberts were playing golf at the Rancho Santa Fe Golf Club as part of a foursome, and Baumgartner even joked with Roberts that he wanted to be the first to hear the news about an Ohtani signing.
Then, as reports about Ohtani potentially signing with the Blue Jays began to circulate, Roberts' game took a turn for the worse.
“I’m usually off my phone. But then my phone is just blowing up non-stop,” Roberts admitted. “I literally couldn’t even get the ball off the tee. It was, like, miserable.”
Baumgartner told the Athletic that there was one hole in particular, the 14th, where Roberts' game “blew up,” with a series of unfortunate events.
As the golf group moved to the 15th hole, no one spoke to Roberts out of respect, trying to give him some moments of thoughtful reflection and silence.
“I’m sort of pleading with Brian the whole day, going, ‘Dude, I promise I’m not that bad,'” Roberts recollected. “And then we get to 15 and I bomb a drive like 340 because I just said, screw it.”
Another member of the famous golfing foursome said, “There was a little bit of red-ass in that one, Dave,” referring to a baseball euphemism synonymous with a sudden dugout eruption of frustration. When the group arrived at the fairway on the 15th hole, Roberts explained he was distracted because it appeared Ohtani was signing with the Blue Jays.
Then later reports clarified that Ohtani was actually just collecting keepsakes from his various team meetings, and of course he ended up choosing the Dodgers and the rest is history.
But it's amusing nonetheless to think about Dodgers manager Dave Roberts confiding his frustrated feelings to the actor Brian Baumgartner. It's a very LA scene. On the other hand, Michael Scott confiding his insecurities to Kevin feels like a scene straight out of The Office, although in the fictionalized version Kevin would probably be giggling the whole time at his golf score of 69.
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