CLEVELAND — Cleveland Browns quarterback Baker Mayfield took to a different kind of athletic field in the name of charity over the weekend.
When the opportunity came about to help his former training partner, National League Most Valuable Player Christian Yelich, Mayfield played in the California Strong Celebrity Softball Game to benefit the victims of the California wildfires.
Mayfield shared a video on Twitter of him hitting a triple, and later scoring when the throw got away from a defender.
Originally, the first video that surfaced on social media showed Mayfield hitting a pop fly during batting practice, and the three-time defending American League Central Division champion Cleveland Indians gave him some good-natured ribbing for the swing.
Following Mayfield’s response, the Indians put their own spin on the “Baker, Baker Touchdown Maker” phrase and answered by inviting the Rookie of the Year finalist to take batting practice with the team this upcoming season.
Mayfield agreed to help out because of the relationship he built with Yelich, currently of the Milwaukee Brewers, when the two trained together in California between the 2018 Rose Bowl game against the University of Georgia Bulldogs and the NFL Draft, where the Browns selected the 2017 Heisman Trophy winner with the No. 1 overall pick.
Although Mayfield took some good-natured ribbing for his batting practice swing, he lent his talents to help an area of the country ravaged by wildfires.
The 2018 wildfire season was the costliest on record in the state of California, as more than 8,000 fires claimed the lives of nearly 100 people and consumed 1.89 million acres of land, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and National Interagency Fire Center.