{"id":3682,"date":"2025-05-16T15:40:18","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T19:40:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/?p=3682"},"modified":"2025-12-10T11:20:39","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T16:20:39","slug":"baseball-economics-and-friendship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/2025\/05\/16\/baseball-economics-and-friendship\/","title":{"rendered":"Baseball, Economics, and Friendship"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Tuesday afternoon, two vans left campus loaded with seniors headed to Cincinnati for a baseball game.<\/p>\n\n

Four years ago, these students selected \u201cFor the [outcome] of the Game,\u201d as their freshman tutorial, a data analytics look into baseball taught by Economics Professor Eric Dunaway. One of their first assignments was to attend a baseball game in Cincinnati that fall.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe topic was so much fun,\u201d remembered Justin Santiago \u201925, a financial economics major from Westfield, Indiana. \u201cFirst class in college, going to a baseball game, the fun conversations, and the cool books we read, it was such a fun class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This road trip was a full-circle moment for these 13 students who shared the tutorial class in the Fall of 2021\u2014a moment that celebrated the friends they had become and the goodbyes that will follow Saturday\u2019s Commencement ceremonies.<\/p>\n\n

\"Professor
Professor Eric Dunaway and his freshman tutorial students. Front Row (l to r): Evan Neukam; Ryan Papandria; Owen Hauber; Gavin Pierson; and Jacob Irick. Back Row: Justin Santiago; Mark Stolte; Camden Scheidt; Jake Oostman; Cam Ford; Antonio Hernandez;
Eric Dunaway, assistant professor of economics; Jacob White, and Sam Benedict.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe all had something in common that helped us grow stronger as a class, to build relationships on,\u201d said mathematics major Antonio Hernandez \u201925, a native of Phoenix. \u201cWhen you look back on it, you really appreciate what we\u2019ve been through together. After graduation, I\u2019m going back to Arizona and may not see some of these guys again. This is the last time I get to spend some quality time with these dudes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

This group forged some exceptional friendships. You can see it in the way they laugh, the inside jokes, the busting of chops, the smiles. Through the entire trip\u2014the two-hour rain delay at the start, the extra inning\u2014there was never a time where these guys weren\u2019t talking and laughing together.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the fun and the energy we brought each day,\u201d said Evan Neukam \u201925, a financial economics major from Carmel, Indiana. \u201cThere was always a new joke going around or some little memory that we made together. We support each other and try to push each other to be a little bit better. I\u2019ve made some of my best friends through this class.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

It wasn\u2019t uncommon for these guys to get together and study for exams in subsequent years. What began as a collective freshman experience continued throughout their college careers.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not just that I know these guys, it\u2019s that I’ve spent class time, afternoons, nights, study sessions, and parties hanging together,\u201d said economics major Jacob White \u201925 of Peoria, Illinois. \u201cIt started with a shared experience as freshman that continued for four years.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

White understands better than most the unique environment Dunaway creates in his classrooms. He\u2019s taken eight classes taught by the professor.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a testament to him, both as a professor and a person,\u201d White said. \u201cHe\u2019s someone you want to take more classes with, so I sought out every opportunity I had to learn more from him. I\u2019m indebted to him in a way that I will never be able to repay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Freshman tutorial is often the introduction to college for a Wabash student, but for Dunaway and this group, it\u2019s about the lasting impacts that college provides.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cThe transition from student to alumni gets anchored in a memory,\u201d Dunaway said. \u201cPart of this for me is to give them a proper send off. At the same time, it\u2019s creating one more experience these guys associate with their time at Wabash. They will remember this and want to make sure other students get those same opportunities. Not only are we in the business of educating, but so much of what we do is anchored in good memories.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

Neukam agrees.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cI had no idea that a tutorial would be this important to me and kind of set my circle from the get-go,\u201d he said. \u201cI feel very lucky. I don’t think my Wabash experience would have been the same if I had chosen a different one. This set me up for the success I wanted at Wabash.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

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Tuesday afternoon, two vans left campus loaded with seniors headed to Cincinnati for a baseball game. Four years ago, these students selected \u201cFor the [outcome] of the Game,\u201d as their freshman tutorial, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":3690,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3682","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"w_featured_image_url":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2025\/05\/Dunaway_FT_cropped.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3682"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3833,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3682\/revisions\/3833"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.wabash.edu\/fyi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}