Ethnographic Essay Topic

For my ethnographic essay, I chose to write about the TCU Baseball team as a subculture. Some of the players came to one of my sorority meetings one night to encourage participation and attendance at their games. They seemed genuine, and I think that it will be very interesting to observe them in their own setting. The team is accessible to me, and they have several games and practices coming up right on campus. Therefore, I will be able to conveniently observe them and gather information about them. I am interested in this team because I enjoy sports, and they have become a very strong team. If I end up getting stuck, I think I will be able to research information on this team online or at the library. 

The TCU Baseball team stuck out to me as a subculture that has a strong sense of identification with each other as members of the team. I have met several of the team members together, and they seem to interact in a unique way with one another. They share certain behaviors as they all consider themselves "baseball players," and most members seem to have high motivations to do well in baseball and in other aspects as well. It seems as if they all share a common language as a team as well, especially during games or in the dugout. I am excited to begin my observations and interviews on members of the team to discover interesting behaviors or commonalities that exist inside the team. As a team, they all obviously share a large interest in the sport of baseball and the equipment involved in the game. They put their whole hearts into each game. I think that during this project, I should find some interesting information about the baseball players that I maybe did not know before.