Talk:John Adams (drummer)

Appearances

Did John Adams appear in the motion picture Major League? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Jaedglass (talk • contribs)

No, but, imitation is the greatest form of flattery. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.39.206.165 (talk) 02:57, 21 July 2008 (UTC)

To-do list

I'm almost done with this article, and then I'm sending it off to WP:GAN. But I have a few things I still have to work out:

• "born 1951"? Find a source for his date of birth... May have to find his age, then work backwards.
• explain when and why Adams drums during games

done Bobnorwal (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

• expand the bit about his bobblehead day
• FINALLY work out that little indiscretion about how many games he's missed. Is it 34? 37? 38?? Sources vary -- and some seem downright wrong. But I'll find the latest interview and take it right from him, right from the horse's mouth.
• And add that he's only missed games because of work.

Bobnorwal (talk) 15:59, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

It would be great if we had a free image to use in the article. A few searches turned up lots of photos, but none with appropriate licensing. He's on Twitter. It couldn't hurt to ask him to contribute one. - Eureka Lott 16:41, 18 May 2012 (UTC)

You know, I was thinking the same thing. I think I'll ask him (if I can just figure out this newfangled Twittering thing!) Thanks for suggesting it. Bobnorwal (talk) 04:15, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Suggestions

responding to Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Baseball#Advice about this article?

• Getting started: how old was Adams? how occupied otherwise? (H.S. graduate and former H.S. band drummer, we know) the bleacher price at Mistake on Lake ;-) and current bleacher price may be welcome tidbits

Done, as much as possible. Couldn't find where Adams was working at the time. Bobnorwal (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

OK. Someday you will sit beside him at a ballgame, with earplugs i recommend ;-)

• Seat banging and bleachers: roughly what timespan for banging? long established or fad? obsolete with the new ballpark? What about bleachers type? get second photo in new ballpark

I don't have a timespan for ya -- this was way before my time. But, from what I can tell, "seat banging" was popular in many of the old stadiums. And I don't think it's possible with the new seats in all the new parks. Also, I tried to get a free-to-use photo of him, but no luck so far! Bobnorwal (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Not as important as my fourth suggestion.

• "For the ceremonial first pitch, Adams hit the ball with his drum after it was thrown by former Indians player Joe Charboneau.[4] When the Indians retired the number 455 in honor of their fans, commemorating 455 sellout games in a row, Adams helped unveil the commemorative sign.[7]"

I don't understand "hit the ball with his drum" --as if it were a bat? Why 455? explain at least briefly in a Note

I hope I clarified... Bobnorwal (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Perfect.

• "In 2008, he won the Hilda Award ..." --not necessarily by reference to Hilda Award, how commonly have fans elsewhere done something similar? or have teams recognized something similar? "something similar" might descend to the sheer number of seasons --37(?) missing less than one per season.

This is the context that I would most welcome as a reader --context provided by other leaders in his field, so to speak [roll eyes] ... (BTW i have revised to state 34 games missed in 38 years.)

• "Big Chief Boom-Boom" --any backlash to that?

Not that I know of. Actually, I'm not sure how popular that nickname is anymore -- or, really, if it ever was.

Bobnorwal (talk) 14:00, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

OK.

--P64 (talk) 16:13, 19 May 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for this, P64! I'm not sure I'll be able to answer all the questions you've raised, but you've definitely given me an idea about what to clarify and expand. Bobnorwal (talk) 03:32, 21 May 2012 (UTC)

I added two references copied from Progressive Field or Progressive Corporation (and Talked at both articles about related matters). At the same time i made the publication date and Retrieved date formats consistently yyyy-mm-dd, which seemed to be the chosen format for both.

Regarding the sellout streak, my formal Note may be more than this article needs or welcomes. It illustrates how to do Notes and Refs together, which is valuable if you don't already know it ;-)

One of the two refs is broken, the one spelled out inside that note. (It sends me to IHT search, and that is one problem i noted on another Talk page.) I didn't mark it {{deadlink}} but it is essentially that.

It might be better to cover "Recognition" chronologically. I can't tell from here. --P64 (talk) 18:10, 23 May 2012 (UTC)

Heads up. I have reported my own editorial work on this article elsewhere, re something that came to my attention (and great surprise) only yesterday -05-23. Namely, my imposition of uniform publication and Retrieved date formats yyyy-mm-dd in the references. Eleven of 14(?) Retrieved dates were yyyy-mm-dd so i made the others conform. All of numerous publication dates were yyyy-mm-dd so i used that for the two references that i imported (see yesterday's comment).

I don't whether you have used yyyy-mm-dd deliberately, or accidently, or naively. (Some editors presume that only accident and naivete are plausible.) Wikipedia talk:Manual of Style/Dates and numbers; search "Exh. talk Suggestions".

You're welcome and Good luck with review and You'll learn something, I know. --P64 (talk) 23:22, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

Congratulations. (I'll no longer watch this and the two Progressive articles.) --P64 (talk) 20:08, 28 June 2012 (UTC)

no drummer at games ???

What happened to John Adams and his drum haven't heard them lately ? Jeanne — Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.236.247.237 (talk) 02:17, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

He's still there.--Astros4477 (talk) 03:50, 26 July 2012 (UTC)

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John Adam's Indians Baseball drummer

John NEVER ATTENDED a Guardians game and NEVER BEAT HIS DRUM at ANY Guardians games. His ENTIRE 50 YEARS drumming was for the Cleveland Indians. His last game attendance was 2019 seasons. Poor health ended his Super Indians Fan appearances at games. 2600:1700:B481:11A0:70C7:AD33:82B1:CD89 (talk) 23:17, 30 January 2023 (UTC)

Agreed. The language of this article should be changed to reflect that. Darwin's Bulldog (talk) 03:07, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

Recent edits

I edited this in the past but am hesitant to do so now because of many recent edits, for obvious reasons. Some good, some bad. A few thoughts:

• There is an edit war going on between references to "Indians" and "Guardians". The war preceded his death but has intensified since. I don't want to get in the middle of it but I think the right answer is to use the name of the team at the time being described, and if both names apply use a term like "the Cleveland baseball team" or "the team" (sometimes used in such places already) or "Guardians/Indians." It's mostly OK now on this score but there are still some glaring errors. Specific examples: "the Guardians paid for two season tickets for Adams and his drum, and gave away a bobblehead depicting him." Should be Indians. "Adams was recognized by the Cleveland Guardians ..." Should be both. "On October 4, 2007, he threw out the ceremonial first pitch for the Guardians' first game". Should be Indians. "on April 27, 2011, the Guardians celebrated it the following Saturday ... Adams's fellow Guardians fans" Both should be Indians.
• New lede sentence - needs rewrite. Does not even mention drumming. "Superfan" as a lousy description of who he is and why he is notable. If that word, which adds nothing to the reader's understanding if who he is, is kept, it should be more buried and in passing rather than seeming to be the point of the article. Also "American man"?? "regarded as"??
• Change in lede para of "he is the only fan for whom the Indians have dedicated a bobblehead day" to "and gave away a bobblehead depicting him" is unfortunate - "only" is the most interesting fact there.
• Deletion of how many games he drummed at ("In total to date, he has supported the team with his drum at over 3,700 games" from a former version) is an unfortunate edit. That fact is a key statistic that belongs in any 2-sentence summary of who he was, let alone this article. Estimates range from over 3,700 to almost 3,900 (Terry Pluto in PD), and that range should be given. Note this number is not how many games he *attended*, as an intermediate edit had it; he has said he went to many Indians games as a kid before he started drumming.
• Deletion of the Pakistan sentence - thank you, that was long a sore thumb in the article. (Sentence was "It has also helped him meet politicians, including U.S. senators and a Pakistani government official.") I get the sense he didn't care about politicians per se, and I'm fairly confident that an unnamed Pakistani official is not the most interesting or notable person he met.
• But along those lines it would improve the article to add a reference to how many people he met because of his drumming, and how much he enjoyed that, maybe using his frequently cited quote that he met people from every continent except Antarctica, and that's just because penguins don't watch baseball.
• Another frequently repeated story is how he let kids at games bang on his drum - maybe mention?
• Also that Indians invited him to be the sole fan in their stadium at games during 2020, the COVID season, and he declined.
• Big Chief Boom-Boom. This fact is kind of dumb and minor, so I'd drop it. Or at least couch it as the outdated trivia that it now is. Herb Score stopped broadcasting Indians games in 1997, and AFAIK nobody else called him that.
• Health issues. I think he had a bunch more that have been reported. The article is not wrong as written, because of "including," but less than encyclopedic on this point.

Sullidav (talk) 05:01, 1 February 2023 (UTC)

John Adams attended and drummed for the Cleveland Indians. Never once did he attend or drum at a game for a franchise named the Guardians. The language of this article should reflect that. It is not our place to try to re-write history. Darwin's Bulldog (talk) 03:09, 3 February 2023 (UTC)