Cleveland Guardians honoring John Adams is a perfect way to cap the season

The Cleveland Guardians will honor John Adams

Few people who never touch a baseball bat deserve to be honored by a team. It’s just how it is, to be able to say your impact is as important as that of a franchise legend is so hard. Sure, you have managers, executives, and announcers who get honored all the time, but fans? Not often, if ever. The Cleveland Guardians have one of those fans though in John Adams.

Adams, to most outside of Cleveland, isn’t someone you’ll likely know. That’s ok. He’s not for ESPN. He’s not for the Dodgers or the Yankees. You don’t need to know him if you’re not a Cleveland Guardians fan, but you absolutely should.

See, Adam is an icon at the Guardians ballpark, both Progressive Field and the old Municipal Stadium. For 50 years he’s shown up to the ballpark and for the last three decades, he’s made his home in the bleachers of the stadium the Guardians call home.

Every game for over 50 years, Adams could be heard in the stand, pounding away on a drum. A sound so iconic that every fan over the age of six who has been to the park likely has a memory of hearing.

Adams is no longer pounding away on that drum these days. He’s in his 70s now, and his health hasn’t been the best. Yet, at the end of the 2019 season, Adams had only missed 40 games in his entire time supporting the team. That’s roughly 3,700 games that he attended over that time period.

Due to his loyalty and consistency, the team has inducted him into the Guardians’ Hall of Fame. As part of his Hall of Fame induction, the team will place a plaque on the wall right behind his seat in the bleachers and place a bronze replica of his drum on a bench that will reside in Heritage Park, where some of the team’s most iconic players are honored and their feats enshrined for fans to see.

Adams will truly be joining legends.

What a perfect way to cap off the Cleveland Guardians 2022 season

The Cleveland Guardians are 10 games over .500, have a four-game lead in the AL Central, and just smack the taste out of the San Diego Padres in a two-game series. They’re a top-10 team in the league and are cruising to the playoffs thanks to Terry Francona’s patient second-half managing magic.

All while celebrating the first year the team is known as the Guardians. This has been a truly magical season and honoring John Adams with a Hall of Fame induction is the perfect way to cap off the season.

When it comes to *my* teams, I’m a terrible fan. While I would love to win a title as a fan, I frankly don’t care. Especially when it comes to my favorite team; the Cleveland Guardians. See, I much rather have a ride that I can remember, no matter how it ends. Seeing this team of young players and rookies surge in the second half of the season to smack the taste out of some of the biggest payrolled teams in the league is amazing. This will truly go down as a season to remember.

It’s been pure magic, and because of that, no matter how this season ends, nothing is going to change that this season has been one for the ages.

But, so we’re clear, I said this team was going to the playoffs.

I may say that every year, sure, but it counts.

So, should Adams never return as the team’s unofficial, official drummer, he can at least look at 2022 as the year the Guardians defied expectations, and the year he went into the team’s Hall of Fame. That’s a pretty special year, regardless of how it ends.