MAJOR-LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYER SALARIES - BRINGING REALISM INTO INTRODUCTORY STATISTICS COURSES

A dataset consisting of salaries of major league baseball players is p ublished at the start of each season in USA Today, and is also made av ailable on the Internet. It is argued that such an easily available da taset and those similar to it can be successfully used by students in a first statistics course for an interesting introduction to data anal ysis through summary measures and graphical displays. Such an approach is most natural for many students because of a strong interest in spo rts and economics. Other statistical ideas can be explored as a natura l consequence of the discussions that ensue from such an analysis.