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In March, Alexei Ramirez became the oldest player to ever compete in the World Baseball Classic when he suited up for Cuba at the age of 44. However, it looks like he got some help from the four different steroids he tested positive for during the international showdown.
Alexei Ramírez was 24 years old when he represented Cuba at the first-ever World Baseball Classic in 2006. He’d won a gold medal a couple of years prior at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, and he added some more hardware to his collection with the silver his team settled for after falling to Japan in the championship game.
That came two years before he made his MLB debut with the White Sox, and the shortstop (who Ozzie Guillen dubbed the “Cuban Missile”) spent eight seasons in Chicago before capping off his time in the league with stints with the Padres and Rays.
He subsequently headed to the Mexican League before announcing his retirement in 2021, but he returned to Cuba (from which he defected in 2007 to pursue his MLB career) three years later and linked up with Pinar del Rio of the Cuban National Series.
Things came full circle when he once again represented his native country at the World Baseball Classic in 2026 at the age of 44, which made him the oldest player in the history of the tournament. However, that achievement is now worthy of an asterisk.
Alexei Ramirez tested positive for four different types of steroids at the 2026 World Baseball Classic
Cuba went 2-2 while failing to advance from group play at the World Baseball Classic in March, and Ramirez did not really get much of a chance to contribute to the cause.
However, he became the oldest player to appear in a game during the tournament when he replaced Leonel Moas Jr. in left field in the seventh inning of a 4-1 loss to Cuba, a contest that ended when he struck out swinging in his lone at-bat in the bottom of the ninth.
The fact that he was able to make the team and play a few innings to break the record Roger Clemens had previously set at the age of 43 at the inaugural WBC was still a pretty cool story at first glance. Unfortunately, he seemed to do so with the help of some performance-enhancing drugs.
According to the Associated Press, Ramirez’s achievement has been tarnished by the drug test that detected the presence of four anabolic steroids in the form of mesterolone, metandienone, oxandrolone, and stanozolol, which the International Testing Agency says are “associated with promoting rapid muscle growth, increased strength, and enhanced physical performance.”
Under World Anti-Doping Agency rules, Ramierz has been hit with a provisional suspension. He does have the right to appeal and request the test of a second sample, but it may end up being a moot point for a man who is firmly in the twilight of his baseball career.