The oldest player in World Baseball Classic history: He just couldn't let go of the baseball he loves.

Observing Alexei Ramirez take his swings beneath the dusk in Puerto Rico, he looked much the same as he did more than ten years back during his stellar seasons with the White Sox in Chicago's South Side. It even bore a likeness to him from two decades prior at the same venue—Hiram Bithorn Stadium—in the first World Baseball Classic.

If you squint and look closely, you might even catch a glimpse of the 7-year-old boy who first learned baseball. That was in a small neighborhood west of Havana called "Tacotaco." It was his uncle who taught him, a beloved relative now bedridden and cared for by Ramirez. His uncle is one reason why Ramirez, at 44, still wears a uniform. Of course, there's also a simpler reason.

“I just love baseball,” Ramirez told me through a translator, “I can't let it go.”

Alexei Ramirez is the oldest player ever to wear a World Baseball Classic jersey, a year older than Roger Clemens who was 43 in 2006. He is also one of only three players in this tournament who participated in the inaugural 2006 Classic, alongside Shairon Martis of the Netherlands and Paolo Espino of Panama. Back then, Ramirez was a 24-year-old, relatively unknown shortstop in Cuba's national league. However, his performances in the Cuban league and that Classic left a strong impression on Major League scouts.

In 2007, Ramirez signed a 4-year, $8 million contract with the White Sox, spending the best years of his career in black and white. He won two Silver Slugger Awards, was selected to the All-Star Game, and over eight years won the affection of passionate Chicago fans. In 2016, he had brief stays with the San Diego Padres and Tampa Bay Rays, then, for most of us, seemed to vanish at age 34. So, what has he been doing for the past decade? How did he maintain his form to return to the field in 2026?

For seven years after leaving the majors, Ramirez played in a competitive amateur league in Miami. “There were all kinds of people there, young guys, guys from the U.S., guys from elsewhere,” Ramirez said. Oh, he also mentioned trying a sport we might play for weekend relaxation, with a few beers chilling in a small fridge near the dugout. “I also play softball,” Ramirez said, “both fastpitch and slowpitch.” The reaction when opponents see a former MLB All-Star in the batter's box is predictable. “Everyone exclaims, ‘Oh my god,’” Ramirez laughed.

Of course, it wasn't just beer-league softball. In 2018, he went to the Mexican League; in 2024, he returned to Cuba's National Series, the league he first joined at age 18 twenty-four years prior. In his early forties, Ramirez was one of the top hitters in the 2024-25 season, hitting 15 home runs with a .339 batting average and a 1.082 OPS. The bat that scouts nearly two decades ago praised as “productive at any position” still works.

Over the past few years, Ramirez has also been handling responsibilities off the field. “I've been caring for my uncle and his family at the same time,” Ramirez said with some emotion, “He was the first one to teach me baseball.”

Now, almost completing a cycle, the veteran has returned to Puerto Rico, to the place where he played in the first Classic, to where his MLB journey began. It is also here that he became the familiar name beloved by White Sox broadcaster Hawk Harrelson for his enthusiastic calls.

“I am very happy and grateful to still be playing,” Ramirez said, “We have very young players now. I was talking earlier with head coach German Mesa, he said veterans—he doesn't call us veterans, he calls us ‘forever young’—are very helpful for the young kids.”

Nearly thirty years of organized baseball (slow-pitch softball can be quite organized too) will make you become that kind of helpful person.