Cuba Ballplayer Gets New Gold Medal

HAVANA TIMES — Cuban baseball player Alexei Ramirez received a big surprise on Saturday when he was presented with a replica of his 2004 Olympic Gold Medal, which he had lost when coming to the USA.

Ramirez, the starting shortstop for the Chicago White Sox, was given the medal, issued by the International Olympic Committee, by his team and pitcher Jose Ariel Contreras, who traveled from Philadelphia to Chicago to be on hand for the delivery.

Contreras and Ramirez were both stars for Pinar del Rio in the Cuban league.

“I feel as if I was once again receiving the medal in Athens,” said Ramirez, who lost the valued object when he was traveling from the Dominican Republic to Miami and Chicago four years ago when he signed with the White Sox.

Since 2008, Ramirez had unsuccessfully used the social networks to try and get whoever found the medal to return it, noted DPA news.