How Kirk Gibson inspired a bunch of future Nationals fans. Since it is Opening Day, we're going to have a few baseball stories. This one from 2016 by Rudy Gersten is worth checking out. It's about Kirk Gibson's's famous 1988 World Series home run, a ball that hit Gersten's aunt Pamela, a fact they would only find out a few years later. 

Now, Kirk Gibson has signed that seat where Pamela was sitting, and the Dodgers have deemed it Seat #88.

Marlins Man calls it quits. As an Indians fan, I have no love for Laurence Leavy (aka Marlins Man). (If you want to know why Leavy and Indians fans don't get along, read this and this.) Alas, he tried to negotiate his season tickets this year and was... denied! Ha! 

After an awkward face-to-face with new team owner Derek Jeter at Jeter's first town hall, the two never had another conversation. Leavy said Marlins representatives came to his office to discuss a deal but, according to Leavy, wound up only insulting him.

"They said that I did nothing for the team, I don't promote the Marlins, nobody buys season tickets because of me, nobody buys advertising because of me, and they don't care what I do," Leavy said.

As a dyed-in-the-wool Tribe fan, all I have to say is: Way to go Marlins! (If you have ever bought season tickets or advertising with the Miami Marlins because of Laurence Leavy, please email me your story:  dailystandard@weeklystandard.com.)

It can't all be about baseball, so let's see how the NFL is screwing things up... Ah yes, the new "targeting" rule the NFL has cooked up. Apparently, USA TODAY has analyzed some game footage and estimated how many penalties the new rule could yield.

Over the course of 75 first-half plays, we found 39 possible penalties on 24 plays. Based on the language above, 22 of those possible penalties were obvious calls, leaving 17 borderline calls.

Baseball has wisely not decided to use rule-based seppuku to make the fans turn on their sport so quickly, but they're learning.

Is journalism a form of 'activism?' This has been a big debate ever since the co-editor-in-chief of the student paper at Marjory Stoneman Douglas high school went on CNN and said so. Here's a #longread on the topic by Danielle Tcholakian, which brings forth some interesting perspectives. For all of the black-and-white debate over bias in journalism, open-minded readers have a lot to chew on. One thing's for sure, the simple argument that journalists should "just report the news!" is never going to go away. Since that era is totally imaginary, it will never actually make a comeback, so it's worth thinking about the actual state of play in news media, and this is a good place to start if you want to have an honest debate about its faults.

Rapper DMX headed to prison over tax fraud. But his track 'Slippin' helped him win some reprieve from the judge:

"I grant you he has been arrested over 30 times in his life," [DMX's attorney Murray] Richman added. "But in the last five years, he has never been arrested, and he's trying to put his life back together."

Nonetheless, U.S. District Judge Jed Rakoff, who agreed ahead of the sentencing to grant Richman permission to play one and only one DMX song, decided Simmons still needed to face the music.

Rakoff sentenced the 47-year-old rapper to a year in prison and called his tax fraud a "brazen and blatant" crime, according to the Associated Press.

Prosecutors pushed for a five-year prison term, but the judge sentenced him to a year.

Save the date! Join us at the 2018 Weekly Standard summit.This  May 17-20 at the historic Broadmoor resort in Colorado Springs, join Stephen F. Hayes, Fred Barnes, John McCormack, Michael Warren and special guests Bret Baier, Senator Tim Scott, Representative Trey Gowdy, A.B. Stoddard, and Jonah Goldberg as they discuss the future of American politics. RESERVE YOUR PLACE TODAY! Book your tickets now.

—Jim Swift, deputy online editor.

Please feel free to send us comments, thoughts and links to dailystandard@weeklystandard.com.

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