Hello and welcome to another edition of <\/span>Free Agent<\/span><\/i>! Happy St. Patrick’s Day, have a Guinness or two (or 10).<\/span><\/p>\n

Before we start, <\/span>I want to make sure you know about our March Madness bracket groups.<\/b> Click here for the men’s bracket group<\/span><\/a>, and <\/span>click here for the women’s one<\/span><\/a>. Alas, there’s no monetary prize for winning this year, but it’ll be fun to see how your bracket compares to <\/span>Reason<\/span><\/i> staffers (several colleagues who don’t like sports usually join in) and fellow subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n

This edition also marks <\/span>Free Agent<\/span><\/i>‘s first anniversary. No gifts necessary, you can just forward this newsletter to a friend who might enjoy it, or <\/span>send them straight to our subscription page<\/span><\/a>. It’s been a really fun year\u2014many thanks to all of you for reading and subscribing!<\/span><\/p>\n

With that, let’s get into the World Baseball Classic, sports betting, legendary sports moments, and, unfortunately, a debate about sexy sports.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Locker Room Links<\/b><\/h1>\n

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• Days before March Madness, Alabama’s Aden Holloway is suspended indefinitely after getting arrested for allegedly dealing marijuana<\/a>.<\/li>\n
• After Venezuela reached the World Baseball Classic final, President Donald Trump posted on social media, “STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?<\/a>“<\/li>\n
• Washington state is implementing an income tax<\/a> on millionaires. <\/span>“It’s gonna sting” in free agency<\/span><\/a>, the Seahawks general manager said. Maybe a <\/span>flat tax<\/span><\/a> is the way to go?<\/span><\/li>\n
• Next week NBA owners will vote on <\/span>exploring expansion\u2014but only in Las Vegas and Seattle<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
• How lobbyists for the Portland Trail Blazers <\/span>pressured politicians into spending $400 million<\/span><\/a> on the team’s city-owned arena.<\/span><\/li>\n
• Formula 1 <\/span>canceled two races because of the Middle East war<\/span><\/a>\u2014the races had been planned for Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/li>\n
• The White House is posting more bombing videos from the war, now interspersed with <\/span>footage from Wii Sports<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/li>\n
• J.C. Tretter resigned from the NFL Players Association in shame back in July\u2014<\/span>now he might get the union’s top job anyway.<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n
• The <\/span>Reason <\/span><\/i>team was shocked and saddened last week by the death of our longtime colleague Brian Doherty. Brian’s work with <\/span>Reason <\/span><\/i>spanned four decades, a long and unmatched journalism career: from <\/span>interviewing Milton Friedman<\/span><\/a> in the ’90s, to chronicling the rise of <\/span>libertarian Rep. Ron Paul<\/span><\/a> in the 2000s, to <\/span>countering antigun misinformation<\/span><\/a> in the 2010s, to profiling <\/span>Elon Musk’s MAGA turn<\/span><\/a> in the 2020s, and many more timeless pieces I don’t have room to list. It’s a terrible loss for <\/span>Reason<\/span><\/i>, and for everyone who believes in freedom for all.<\/span><\/span>
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  A farewell to our colleague Brian Doherty, dead at 57 https:\/\/t.co\/vNY3iVvTqf<\/a><\/p>\n

  — reason (@reason) March 14, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n