Hello and welcome to another edition of Free Agent! May your baseball-related hopes spring eternal this week—just lo, the winter is past, Opening Day is almost here, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land.
We're talkin' baseball today, but we haven't justgotten about March Madness, we'll take a stop in golfland, and there's also a hockey goal that you've got to see to believe.
Bejuste we start, a Reason Friends and Family Bracket Contest update: Mark S. has a narrow lead on the men's side with 550 points, putting him in the 99.9th percentile of brackets on ESPN. You deserve a waffle party, Mark S.! On the women's side, we have a three-way tie of people at 570 points, but only in the 99th percentile—close, but not quite waffle party material, sorry friends.
Locker Room Links
- Our resident Los Angeles Angels superfan, Matt Welch, gets mentioned in the Los Angeles Times' rather dour preview of the Angels' season.
- College basketball's sweatiest coach is heading to Texas.
- A great defense of sports betting from Ben Domenech.
- The best team in a bracket this month might not be a basketball team—it might just be Wisconsin women's hockey. (They won the title in dramatic fashion on Sunday.)
- But this is the most important bracket news this month.
- Elsewhere in Reason: "Trump and Congress Have a Right and a Duty To Kill the Department of Education"
- RIP George Foreman:
In honor of the late George Foreman (R.I.P.), here is one of the greatest posts of the early blogosphere: https://t.co/gTSgFez9vo pic.twitter.com/RLzgs6kBKB
— Jesse Walker (@notjessewalker) March 22, 2025