Opal Lee was 20 years old when Jackie Robinson officially broke MLB’s color barrier on April 15, 1947. On Friday, 75 years later, flanked by Ferguson Jenkins and Al Oliver, she threw out the first pitch at Globe Life Field as part of the Jackie Robinson Day celebrations. The underhanded toss to Rangers’ third-base coach Tony Beasley was impressive for someone with 95 years of life under their belt, but more impressive was her clarity of thought in the interview room a few minutes later.

“Throwing out the first pitch? On Jackie Robinson Day?” Lee said with a sense of glee. “I could do a holy dance, but the children say when I do that, I’m twerking.”

The holy dance might not have made an appearance, but there was a distinct sense of reverence in the room when Lee spoke about her experiences. After all, this was a woman who has become known as the “grandmother of Juneteenth” for her efforts to have the day recognized as a federal holiday.

Juneteenth is June 19. That was the date in 1865 that enslaved people in the state of Texas were made aware that slavery had been made illegal more than two years prior with the issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation, marking the effective end of slavery in the United States. Seventy-four years — to the day — after that, Lee was 12 years old when her house in Fort Worth was burned to the ground by white rioters. Multiple marches and almost 82 years later to the day, Juneteeth was finally recognized as a national holiday last June.

To hear Lee speak in person was a profound experience. The history that she has lived is immense, and her lack of cynicism is inspiring.

“We’ve made some strides; of course, we have — gee!” she said. “I can buy clothes wherever I want. I can eat in the restaurants if I want to. Nobody stops me when I go to Forest Park where I was only allowed to go on the 19th of June. Oh, we’ve made some strides. But I’m here to tell you, we’ve got lots more to do. We’ve got homelessness and joblessness. And our education system must tell the children the truth. They need to know what happened so they can make the decisions not to let it happen again.

“There’s so much more that we need to do,” she continued. “And we need to do it together. I advocate everybody making yourself a committee of one. It’s your responsibility. Not the government’s — it’s your responsibility to make these changes. And you know, people who are not on the same page as you — change their minds. And their minds can be changed, you know.”

Of all the moments from yesterday’s Jackie Robinson day, the one that will stick with me most was listening to Opal Lee talk about her history, and her continued belief that change continues to be possible.

Also a pretty solid first pitch from a 95-year-old pic.twitter.com/Vy4Wq6iUOF

— Levi Weaver (@ThreeTwoEephus) April 16, 2022

The Rangers were never going to win the 2022 World Series, but … this is not how they wanted to start the season

“I didn’t think we were good at all, at any point in the game,” manager Chris Woodward said after Saturday night’s 7-2 loss to the Angels. “I know the second inning started with a groundball down the line by Andy (Ibáñez) that ended up being a hit, but we did not do anything to really put pressure on them offensively today. We fell for every trap that we talked about (avoiding) before the game. So it wasn’t surprising to see the lack of production. We swung at his changeup. We pulled it, we hit it on the ground, we weren’t ready for fastballs in the middle of the plate. Leads to a lot of zeros.”

Nobody expected the Rangers to win the World Series in 2022, but a 2-7 start is a disappointment for a team that took big strides this past offseason to improve on their 60-102 record in 2021.

“We’re expecting improvement, and that’s maybe why I was a little bit frustrated (after the 9-6 loss on Friday),” Woodward said on Saturday. “We expect there to be improvement from year to year, and when the same thing happens, that’s frustrating for us, because we’re like ‘All right, there’s not as much growth as we need to see there, to be on what we want to be a winning team.’ That’s the biggest challenge, I think.”

Sunday’s game did little to allay Woodward’s concerns. The 8-3 loss to the Angels featured a run-scoring passed ball, three errors, seven walks, and three stolen bases allowed. The Rangers’ offense is the only aspect of the game that has been fully functional all season long, but even that facet isn’t without critique. In innings seven through nine, the Rangers have scored a total of five runs in nine games (and three of those were in the comeback win in the series finale in Toronto).

“Kind of like yesterday’s game, we didn’t play well enough at all to win the game,” Woodward said on Sunday. “I thought the leadoff walks, the early walks in front of the top of the lineup, the mistakes, just — we’re not playing well. We’ve got to fix it; we’ve got to play better if we expect to compete and win major-league baseball games. We’re just not doing anything well right now.”

The four-game series against the Angels marked the beginning of a 14-game stretch against division opponents. Nine games are certainly not enough to derail a season that should (still) be markedly better than its predecessor, and the Rangers could go a long way toward righting the ship if they can win more than they lose against the Mariners, Athletics and Astros between now and April 28.

The Texas bullpen has been a real, uh, mood?

… and by “mood,” I don’t mean making poses on the red carpet in a daring outfit and ostentatious sunglasses. I mean “mood” like a bad mood. Like when you’re 13 years old and you storm off to your bedroom in tears because your dad made an innocuous comment about broccoli and it just wrecked your entire life. It has been unpredictable, but not in a way that suggests that a good day is a possible outcome, it’s more like, “There are many options for how today could spin out of control, I just don’t know which one it will be today.”

After Sunday’s 8-3 loss to the Angels, here’s where the Rangers bullpen stands: second in baseball in relief innings pitched at 47 2/3, 30th out of 30 in ERA at 5.66.

Here, check out this spreadsheet:

Brock Burke’s 10 strikeouts in 4 2/3 innings is a little spark, and Spencer Patton has somehow crafted mostly zeroes out of pure guile. But by and large, these numbers are underwhelming.

And frankly, it’s not just the relievers. You don’t get near the top of the league in relief innings pitched if the starters are doing their jobs. And yes — starters are still working to stretch out to a full workload, but it’s not like every short outing has been a result of the pitch count. We’re nine games into the season and have yet to see a single starting pitching performance that has felt like a Statement Outing — at least not a statement any of the pitchers would like to sign their name to. Hopefully, Jon Gray’s return on Tuesday will change the tone.

Uh, that sounds bad. What are the options?

The Rangers have already called up Patton, Nick Snyder, and Matt Moore (technically — he hasn’t officially been added to the 40-man roster since Dennis Santana is on the COVID-19 IL, which allows teams to bring up a replacement player without having to maneuver the roster). Garrett Richards, likewise, wasn’t on the Opening Day roster (blister) but is active now. So it’s not like the front office has sat on its hands while the bullpen struggles. But after Snyder, there’s not an obvious next man up.

Demarcus Evans is on the 40-man roster, but he’s in extended spring training purgatory after a rough spring. Yerry Rodriguez has allowed five runs in 4 2/3 innings for a 9.64 ERA and nearly as many walks (four) as strikeouts (five).

And that’s it, as far as guys who are already on the 40-man roster. If the Rangers want to, say, DFA Evans, they could call someone up. But whom?

Chase Lee? “The Viper” is 2-for-2 in save opportunities with no runs allowed, five strikeouts and one walk in four innings at Frisco. His teammate Fernery Ozuna is also working with a 0.00 ERA after 5 2/3 innings, having struck out 10 and walked two. In Round Rock, Tyson Miller is off to a good start, with 11 strikeouts against two walks, allowing one earned run in seven innings. Nick Tropeano isn’t off to much of a start, but he has big-league experience.

Or maybe the team could help the bullpen by simply giving them fewer innings to pitch. On the starting pitching front, there are some pre-existing options on the 40-man roster: Glenn Otto had a nice outing on Friday and hasn’t allowed a run in seven innings over two starts. He has walked just one and struck out nine. A.J. Alexy is another option, though his early numbers haven’t been as crisp: seven each in the strikeout and walk columns while allowing four earned runs over seven innings in his first two starts.

You could argue that the front office needs to make an outside acquisition to add pitching help, but those moves are usually reserved for seasons in which the team is vying for a postseason spot. It’s almost certainly not worth it to make a short-term bullpen addition that doesn’t help the 2023-24 teams just for the sake of keeping the vibes good, but it could potentially be a good move if you’re trying to boost morale, even if just to reinforce the message that you are committed to being better in 2022 than 2021.

A milestone for Greg Holland

After Friday night’s 9-6 loss to the Angels, there was a table set up in the clubhouse with glasses of champagne. It was a confusing sight for the media until we saw the sign: the game marked 10 years of service time for Holland, who received a black golf bag with the logos of all six big-league teams he has played for. Hitting the 10-year mark is a big deal for big-league players — it means they’ll receive the maximum MLB pension.

Welcome to the newest (and likely temporary) section of the Weaver Wire where we check in to see how Taveras is doing in Round Rock. As of April 18, Leody Taveras is hitting .432/.457/.659 (1.116 OPS) with two home runs and two stolen bases in 10 games.

While we’re at it, we should probably include Bubba Thompson here, given his early-season results. After a dismal 2019 season (and no 2020 minor-league season), Thompson rebounded nicely in 2021, hitting .275/.325/.483 (.808 OPS) with 16 home runs and 25 stolen bases in 104 games (though he did strike out 125 times).

Thus far in Round Rock, Thompson is hitting .391/.391/.522 (.913) with one home run and six stolen bases in 10 games.

Of note: the identical batting average and on-base percentage means Thompson hasn’t walked yet. You don’t have to walk a lot when you’re hitting .391, but given Thompson’s speed, anything that would get him on base more often would be welcomed.

Right now, the Rangers outfield is set — Adolis García is bouncing between center and right field while Kole Calhoun (RF) and Eli White (CF) get their platoon reps and Brad Miller and Nick Solak split time in left field. But if the back stiffness that kept Miller out of the lineup on Saturday turns into an IL stint (or if Kole Calhoun’s cold start extends a few more weeks) we might see one of these two (likely Taveras — for a number of reasons, including 40-man roster status) in the big leagues soon.

This is less the usual “hey, look at this weird or interesting card” and more “hey, uh. .. I could use some help.” This isn’t even really a baseball card, it’s a 4×6 photo with a blank back. I bought this as part of a memorabilia lot in May 2020, when we were all scrambling to find things to write about and did an eBay challenge. I don’t even know if “1947-66 Exhibits” is the right name for this card, it’s just the closest thing I found on Google. Do you know anything about this card? No company is listed, so “MADE IN U.S.A.” is really all I’ve got to go on.

If you’ve heard of Davis, it’s probably from her 2014 cover of Meghan Trainor’s “All About That Bass” (or as a co-writer of Sharon Van Etten’s “Seventeen”). But while that was a well-executed jazz cover, her original stuff is way better. This one isn’t her most well-known release, but it has quickly become one of my favorites, based on what I will colloquially refer to as “music nerdery.” The time signature jumps from 3/4 to 4/4 in the pre-chorus, but when the hook kicks in, listen: the one-and-two-and-three-and, one-and-two-and-three-and has a hitch, counting one-and-two-and-three-and-and — a half-measure!

Her newest release, 2021’s “Strange Boy,” is a reinterpretation of Daniel Johnston’s 1984 album “Retired Boxer” and is beautiful in its own right.

I just happened to be in the right place at the right time to catch Tony Beasley awaiting Lee, Jenkins and Oliver. With the high socks and the Dodgers-font 42 on the back of Beasley’s jersey, it felt like one of those moments where the attempt to honor history did a better-than-usual job of channeling a moment.

(Photo of Opal Lee: Tim Heitman / Getty Images)