Media Request

<p><strong>From World Series hero to prison inmate, Willie Mays Aikens&#39; story is one of tragedy, belief, and the ultimate comeback.</strong><br /><br />Willie Mays Aikens was ascendant in the 1980s, establishing himself as one of the top sluggers in Major League Baseball as a member of the Kansas City Royals, alongside George Brett and Hal McRae. But a promising career quickly turned disastrous when he fell into drug abuse and was ultimately sentenced to 20 years in prison, a reflection of the era&#39;s harsh federal sentencing guidelines for crack cocaine and a criminal legal system intent on punishment rather than rehabilitation.<br /><br /><em>Safe at Home</em> is an intimate portrait of a tortured player and a redemption story for the ages. Through extensive interviews with Alkens himself, his family, friends, teammates, cellmates, and dealers, Gregory Jordan has woven this comeback tale with compassion and unique intensity.<br /><br />Readers will gain unvarnished insight into Aikens&#39; impoverished childhood in a slow-to-desegregate South Carolina town, the rollicking Kansas City Royals&#39; locker room, the go-go drug culture of America in the 80s, behind the prison gates of Leavenworth, and the grace and stability Aikens has found as a coach and mentor.</p>