The Royalman Report, LIVE Sundays at 7 pm CST

We’ve had a number of guests on the Royalman Report, but none have had as tumultuous a journey as Willie Mays Aikens.

Aikens was a star in the 1980 World Series, hitting two homers in Games 1 and 4, as well as winning Game 3 with an RBI in the bottom of the 10th inning. Within five years, Aikens would be out of baseball and battling addictions to cocaine and alcohol. In 1994, he was convicted on drug and bribery charges.

In describing his fall from stardom and his return to normalcy, Aikens provided us with an intensely honest and personal account of his journey back to baseball and fatherhood.

(Aikens has a book due out in April that is available for pre-order if anyone is interested. We get no compensation for mentioning this or for any sales, but want to make sure you’re aware.)

Click the embedded player below to listen to this week’s show. The downloadable mp3 is available here.

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Willie Aikens is our guest on tonight's Royalman Report

Willie Aikens hit .400 and slugged four homers in the 1980 World Series. He was a key part of the Royals offense in the early 1980s.

Then addiction landed him in prison for cocaine charges. He got clean. He reconnected with his family, and, last spring, he rejoined the Royals as a coach. Tonight he’ll talk about his story, his fall and redemption and what the future holds.

It all starts at 7 p.m. tonight and our live chat room is always open during the show. Just check out the livestream broadcast below.

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• In light of the collection of Eric Hosmer, Johnny Giavotella, Alcides Escobar and Mike Moustakas in the Royals current infield, Jeff Parker at Royally Speaking set out to determine the best overall Royals infield in history.  It’s a nice piece of work, and Jeff is as solid as they come among Royals bloggers.
• I hope you saw Jeff Francoeur‘s throw to third to nail Jhonny Peralta in the Detroit series.  If not, great news! ESPN’s Sports Science named it the play of the week.  If you were amazed at the perfect strike from right field to the glove of Mike Moustakas while watching live, when Sports Science breaks it down, it’s even more amazing of just how perfect of a throw it was.
• Monday at 11 p.m. marks the deadline to sign draft picks from the June amateur draft and Bubba Starling still hasn’t signed.  But don’t panic.  Dayton Moore expects negotiations will go down to the “final hour” - and that’s the norm, according to Kevin Goldstein of Baseball Prospectus.*
• Finally, the custom card above was made by Aaron Stilley of I-70 Baseball and Royal Heritage.  I think the 1986 Topps design, while awful, is also remarkably simple, and, as a bonus, my first George Brett baseball card was a 1986 Topps.  So it will always be a special set to me.

*Incidentally, Goldstein has agreed to join us on an episode of The Royalman Report in the near future. AND the show has picked up an official sponsor, so if you happen to be in Westport, stop by Kelly’s  Westport Inn and tell them Royalman sent you.