In my spare time, I coach baseball.
Before you get too excited, I coach at the youth level. I do not have some secret life moonlighting as some upper-tier baseball coach. But I am happy that I get to coach my son and his youth baseball team, and I have been coaching him in the sport since his first season playing T-Ball.
After his 10U team lost in a championship series in the summer, the team made the leap to the next level, a 12U division, for the fall season. Now the youngest team in the league, the players are learning things like leads, balks, the infield fly rule, dropped third strikes, and more. The adjustment has been tough at times, but they are getting better each week and beyond that, they are enjoying the process.
Of course, the kids on the team know what I do for a living, and for many ten-year-old kids talking about football is something that they love to do. The future of the game, I think, is in good hands. Which is why I was amused when, during a discussion of Baker Mayfield recently before a game, our starting shortstop said, and I’m paraphrasing: “Baker Mayfield? He stinks. I like his commercials though, they’re pretty funny.”
The nuance of youth.
But is our shortstop right? Do the Cleveland Browns have a Mayfield problem right now? In getting ready for this piece I took a spin through the Browns’ media landscape and, it seems they might. So let’s dive into the Mayfield situation, looking at what he does well, the concerns and ultimately what might happen in Cleveland.