Willie Mays Aikens: Safe At Home - Full Nelson

Amy K. Nelson tells the story of former Kansas City Royals first baseman Willie Mays Aikens. In 1980, he became the first player in MLB history to have two multi-home run games in the same World Series. Little did his teammates and fans know, but he was high on cocaine nearly every day during that series. In 1994, he was sentenced to over 20 years in prison for selling crack, due to harsh sentencing and mandatory minimum guidelines. After 14 years, Aikens was released, and his perseverance and triumph is now chronicled in the book Willie Mays Aikens: Safe At Home.


Produced by SB Nation Studios

Senior Correspondent - Amy K. Nelson

Senior Producer - Josh Dodd

Director of Photography - Jimmy Shelton

Creative Editor - Noah Shulman

Second Unit - Stephen P. Greenwood

Audio Technician (Field) - Michael Cottrell

Audio Technician (Post) - Brendan Murphy

Lead Researcher - James Edwards

Executive Director | SB Nation - Chad Mumm

CEO | SB Nation - Jim Bankoff


Special thanks to Willie Mays Aikens, the Kansas City Royals, Gregory Jordan, George Brett, Dennis Leonard, Dayton Moore, Mike Swanson, Kyle Vena, Triumph Books, City of Surprise, AZ, and Google.

Footage and images provided by the Kansas City Royals, ABC News, Getty Images, Sports Illustrated, Shutterstock, UPI, AP, Newsday, The Kansas City Star, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Milwaukee Sentinel, The Victoria Advocate, The Spokesman Review, Boca Raton News, Herald-Journal, Lawrence Journal-World, The Bulletin, The News and Courier.

Music provided by APM Music.

• Category

  Sports

[Alex Maldonado]

The production value with "Full Nelson" is amazing. Loved this video, and can't wait to see more like it. I am curious, though. Are you guys at SB Nation getting help from some of the guys over at The Verge for these videos?

[SB Nation]

Thanks for feedback! Our studio team at Vox Media produces video for both The Verge and SB Nation (and the soon to be Polygon) -- The Full Nelson also has a great dedicated team that works closely with Amy to drop these videos every week. Thanks for the support!

[Graham Filler]

So well done.

[Alfred Marroquin]

GREAT WORK! I really enjoyed this... really insightful and nicely produced... all involved did a great job!

[tmon87]

i just spent the last hour watching Full Nelson videos. The production value is amazing in all of them, but this is by far the best. Great job!

[Ellen McGowan]

God bless him, a lot of people did time for the Rockefeller law, thank god he made it. Maybe this happening saved his life. :-)

[LordBenne]

Give Amy a weekly 30-minute show, ESPN.

[creatorofsound80]

Awsome, powerful story. So glad he made it back and was given another chance by the Royals to make a living. Also, love those late 70's-early 80's Royal away uni's...

[Jefgg]

Willy Mays Aikens was set up like a motherfucker when he got busted for crack. He served far too long in the joint. The pigs should worry more about murderers, rapists, armed robbers and molesters. 

[amyknelson]

weird. i thought i was the second coming of morgan freeman ... hmmmmmmm.

[boattrainpaddy]

Agreed. She's the wrong person to do narration for this story.

[Tech3178]

Wow great video. Production was amazing as well.

[Tom McEllroy]

Great story. Looked good, too. But what's with the narration? When she speaks, I visualize a boring Word document instead of whatever is on screen. Anyone else?