Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield (6) lunges forward for a first down at First Energy Stadium on Sunday in a game against the Cincinnati Bengals.
Photo Credit: UPI
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Baker is indeed the man.
No doubt about it. The Oklahoma quarterback and the Cleveland Browns no. 1 pick has propelled his team to a 7-7-1 record, improving to 5-2-1 at home, and marking the first time the Browns have been .500 or better at this point of a season since 2007.
With 24 touchdown passes this season, the Austin, Texas native has moved within two of the rookie records held by Peyton Manning and Russell Wilson.
Ever since the rookie quarterback assumed center stage in week 3 of the season in a Thursday night nationally televised game against the New York Jets, replacing an injured Tyrod Taylor and heroically bringing the Browns back from a two-touchdown deficit, Baker has been the talk of the town. The Browns beat the Jets, 21-17, officially ending their losing streak at 19 games or 635 days.
Mayfield started the next game (week 4) and has never looked back. Since 1999, he’s become the 30th starting quarterback for the Cleveland Browns.
The Browns final home game at First Energy Stadium pretty much sealed Mayfield’s stature in Cleveland as the new icon; giving the Browns fresh hope that their 16-season playoff drought may soon come to an end (beginning next season) with Baker as their Knight and shining armor and formidable field general.
In the Brown 28-16 win over the Bengals last Sunday in front of a sold out First Energy crowd on a cold December afternoon, Mayfield went 27 of 37 for 284 yards with three touchdowns and no interceptions for a rating of 121.9.
Soon after the Browns win over the Bengals, their first sweep of the Bengals since 2002 and first sweep of any AFC North opponent since 2007, fans have taken to Twitter, posting that Baker is now the new undisputed sports hero in Cleveland, replacing LeBron James, who departed to La La Land at the end of the 2017 season.
Here are some tweets that were splashed across Twitter on Sunday
@ColeBuckus
Baker Mayfield is the new LeBron
Eric Spicer
@eric_spicer2
Baker Mayfield is already bigger in Cleveland than LeBron ever was. It shows how much more important the Browns are than every other Cleveland sport.
Michael Smith
@Smittyupsman
Time to put Baker and the #Browns banner up on the side of the building in Cleveland, this is a Football town!!! LeBron who???
Complete nonsense! roars this blogger from the peanut gallery.
Hailing Baker the new King of Cleveland wasn’t limited to Twitter.
"Baker Mayfield is just the gift Cleveland fans needed this season, especially in the wake of LeBron James’ departure,'' Mary Kay Cabot, Browns beat writer for Cleveland.com, wrote.
As amazing as Baker Mayfield has been, have Cleveland sports fans really forgotten about the left field of the Cleveland Indians infield as far as star power and heroics goes, two remarkable athletes, who have been every bit as dramatic as Mayfield’s heroics? But somehow the spectacular accomplishments and frequent web gems of Francisco Lindor and José Ramírez gets overlooked, time and again, in this football crazed town.
Do we really have to review the feats and triumphs of Frankie Lindor and Hosey over the last few seasons to demonstrate just how incredible they have been?
Shouldn't Cleveland fans be tweeting until they run out of characters that Lindor and Ramirez were largely the reason the Indians advanced (in 2016) to their first World Series since 1997. The dynamic duo have become, moreover, the first two players in Indians franchise history to collect at least 35 home runs, 35 doubles, 90 RBI ‘s and 25 stolen bases.
Lindor and Ramírez have become the first switch-hitting teammates in MLB history to both reach 30 HR’s; they’re also recognized for becoming the first switch-hitting teammates in MLB history with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases.
As a stadium usher, I’ve attended a number of Indians’ games at Progressive Field since 2011. I never recall a more dramatic home run then when Lindor cracked a grand slam against the New York Yankees in Game 2 of the ALDS in 2017. The Indians stormed back from behind to win, 9-8, in 13 innings. Unfortunately, the Indians lost the remaining three games of the Series and were ousted from post-season play.
Still, Frankie’s majestic blast made Progressive Field rumble on one memorable late afternoon; it was arguably one of the most dramatic, ear-splitting, home runs I ever witnessed at Progressive Field.
That blast alone in the 2017 ALDS should have placed Frankie right next to the King, LeBron.
But once again, Cleveland fans determined LeBron was the only real game in town.
Lindor continued his spectacular gallantry in the 2018 campaign; putting together six multi-homer games, tying him with Manny Machado for second most in the Majors behind Khris Davis (7).
The Indians advanced to the ALDS in 2018, but were quickly devoured by the Houston Astros in three games. Still, despite the Indians quick exit from the post-season, Lindor provided some offensive thunder, batting .364 with two home runs.
Somehow, José Ramirez hasn't risen to the rock star status as his Puerto Rican teammate, Francisco Lindor, but he's as equally as lethal at the plate with equally superior defensive skills at third base, a mighty hot corner.
And fans across the country have taken notice.
Ramirez was voted to the starting lineup of the All-Star game in consecutive years, something that hasn't been accomplished in Cleveland since Al Rosen in 1953 and 1954.
Hosey, moreover, set a club record with 29 first-half homers, tying him with Lance Berkman and Mickey Mantle for the most in MLB history by a switch-hitter.
It's not many teams who can boast players like Ramírez and Lindor who both belted 10 home runs in one month in becoming the first Indians to accomplish such a feat since Jim Thome and Karim García in 2002.
José Ramírez (on left) and Francisco Lindor, the dynamic duo of the Tribe's infield.
Photo Credit: SI.com
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And consider this stat from ESPN: “José Ramírez and Francisco Lindor are the first teammates to each get 80 extra-base hits in consecutive seasons since Joe DiMaggio and Lou Gehrig did so for the Yankees in 1936-37.”
How’s that for star power?
Amazingly, all this seems to have fallen deep beneath the surface among the sports fans in Cleveland.
If Frankie and Hosey were playing in New York, Boston, or L.A., I can’t imagine them being overlooked in any of those respective cities the way they are overlooked in Cleveland.
Yes, Baker is amazing, LeBron was phenomenal, but PLEASE, let's not forget about Frankie Lindor and José Ramirez, two All-Stars and potential Hall of Famers who somehow are not considered iconic figures who tower over the city like Baker currently does and Lebron once did.
They are every inch the Kings Lebron was and Baker purports to be.
–Bill Lucey
December 27, 2018
