In 1998, Mark McGwire broke Roger Maris’ home run record of 61 by hitting 70 home runs. Incredibly, in the same year Sammy Sosa also broke the record, hitting 66. Again, in 1999 both players broke Maris’ mark but did not top their 1998 results: McGwire hit 65 and Sosa 63. In 2001, another slugger, Barry Bonds, whose top home run total was 49 in 2000, broke McGwire’s record with 73 home runs. Here we present the seasonal home run totals for McGwire over his major league career starting with his rookie 1987 season, along with those for Sammy Sosa, Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr.

McGwire 49, 32, 33, 39, 22, 42, 9, 9, 39, 52, 58, 70, 65, 32 Sosa 4, 15, 10, 8, 33, 25, 36, 40, 36, 66, 63, 50 Bonds 16, 25, 24, 19, 33, 25, 34, 46, 37, 33, 42, 40, 37, 34, 49 Griffey 16, 22, 22, 27, 45, 40, 17, 49, 56, 56, 48, 40 McGwire’s low totals of 9 in 1993 and 1994 are explained by a combination of the baseball strike that cancelled many games and some injuries he sustained. Sosa’s rookie year was 1989. His home run totals were fairly high during the strike years. Bonds’ rookie year was 1986. He has been a consistent home run hitter but has never before approached the total of 60 home runs.

Ken Griffey Jr. had a spectacular start during the strike season, and many thought he would have topped Maris that year had there not been a strike.

Griffey’s rookie year was 1989. In the strike-shortened season of 1993, Griffey hit 45 home runs; he has approached 60 twice.

a. Find the seasonal median number of home runs for each player.

b. For each player, determine the minimum, the first quartile, the median, the third quartile, and the maximum of their home run totals. Use these results to construct comparative box-and-whisker plots.

c. What are the similarities and differences among these famous sluggers?