Remembering a Legend: Guardians Pay Tribute to Drummer and Lifelong Fan Adams

CLEVELAND — For the closing years, all John Adams may want to envision became strolling lower back into Progressive Field.
“I’m going to be ecstatic,” Adams advised MLB.Com in 2022. “I think I’ll walk a foot taller off the floor.”
The pleasure and anticipation of being surrounded by his own baseball family all over again helped push Adams through months of horrible fitness problems. He broke his ribs, had triple skip surgical treatment, underwent another heart surgery, battled troubles with his thyroid, went to the ICU in 3 separate instances, broke his hip, and misplaced the capacity to walk due to contamination in his heel. No matter how tough of a hand he was dealt, he remained optimistic, depended on lovers’ prayers, and could expectantly say, “I’ll be lower back at Progressive Field.”
On Monday morning, we learned Adams wouldn’t be capable of satisfying that dream. After countless days of combating each disorder that plagued him, Adams exceeded seventy-one.
“For nearly five years, the beat of John’s drum became the heartbeat of baseball here in Cleveland,” stated Guardians senior VP of public affairs Bob DiBiasio. “We are all saddened with the aid of John’s passing. His determination, commitment, and passion for our franchise at both Cleveland Stadium and Progressive Field have become unmatched. John will for all time remain a member of our team.”
Adams become known as the man with the powerful bass drum on the top of the bleachers in phase 182 at the nook of Carnegie and Ontario. He’d bang the instrument in a loud, consistent rhythm any time the group would have a runner in the scoring role or need a rally — a culture that began on Aug. 24, 1973, in an 11-5 Cleveland victory over Texas.
Adams offered the drum for $25 at a storage sale. He desired to make a little noise but didn’t need to hassle everyone, so he labored his way to the pinnacle row of segment 182 to keep his distance from other fanatics and started banging his drum. Little did he know, he discovered a domestic for the subsequent 48 years.
Adams became a staple at Cleveland’s ballpark. Fans might clear out inside and outside of his section to sneak a peek at what has created the rhythmic beats that motivate all of us within the crowd to clap alongside in monumental moments of video games. Many would draw the braveness to stroll up the steps and ask for an image or be a part of it along with his drumming.
Adams would in no way say no. This became his circle of relatives, and he loved every interplay he had.
A communique with Adams may want to be okay with the remaining hours. All you wished changed into a love for baseball or his team, and Adams could inform story after tale. His smile would stretch from ear to ear, and the exhilaration he’d display approximately life and baseball became contagious.
“There’s nothing like being down at the ballpark,” Adams told MLB.Com closing year. “Because it’s greater than just the sport; it’s all the people around you and all the humans you notice.”
Over his forty-eight-yr span in the bleachers (more than three,500 games), Adams overlooked forty-five domestic contests. He attended 3 All-Star Games, 11 playoff series, and 3 World Series, and he had a seat at Len Barker’s ideal recreation in 1981.
The mark he left on the Guardians became greater than simply being an avid fan who came to every sport. Adams has become a member of the corporation via his loyalty and exuberance. Before his fitness problems advanced, the group wanted to ensure he knew that. On the anniversary of his first sport with his drum in 1973, the Guardians visited Adams at his nursing domestic on Aug. 24, closing yr, to honor him with a life-length drum comprised of bronze as a way to take forever a seat on top of bleachers that had been eliminated from the left area and located in Heritage Park for fans to take into account his legacy.
“I can’t believe that is occurring,” he exclaimed while offered the statue and named the twelfth member of Cleveland’s Distinguished Hall of Fame.
It changed into continually round this time every wintry weather that Adams would start preparing for another season of 81 journeys to Progressive Field. But for the final two years, he’d realize Opening Day changed out of the query and would immediately set an intention to walk into the ballpark before quitting the season.
Adams’ health averted him from returning to Progressive Field one more time before he handed, but in 2023, his intention could be entire.
Adams’ drum and his legacy will for all time be circulated via the partitions of Progressive Field. And for everybody who knew Adams and his passion for baseball, there’s absolute confidence that his presence might be felt at every domestic recreation.