Willie Aikens

First baseman

Born: October 14, 1954 (age 62)
Seneca, South Carolina

Batted: Left

Threw: Right

MLB debut

May 17, 1977, for the California Angels

Last MLB appearance

April 27, 1985, for the Toronto Blue Jays

MLB statistics

Batting average

.271

Home runs

110

Runs batted in

415

Teams

Willie Mays Aikens (born October 14, 1954) is a former Major League Baseball first baseman. He had established himself as one of the top sluggers in the game before drugs derailed his career. In 1994, Aikens was sentenced to twenty years in prison on four counts of crack cocaine distribution and one count of use of a firearm during drug trafficking. He was released on June 4, 2008 after changes in federal drug laws, and is sometimes cited as an example of the results of mandatory minimum sentencing in drug-related crimes.

Aikens grew up in poverty in the Bruce Hill community of Seneca, South Carolina. He was a standout athlete in baseball, football and basketball at Seneca High School, and attended historically black South Carolina State University on a baseball and football scholarship. When S.C. State dropped baseball after Aikens' freshman year, Willie McNeil, Aikens' high school baseball coach, helped him catch on with a semi-pro summer baseball league in Baltimore, Maryland. While playing in Baltimore, he caught the eye of California Angels scout Walter Youse and was drafted by the Angels with the number two overall pick in the January 1975 Amateur draft.

Aikens soon emerged as one of the top sluggers in California's farm system, slugging a league leading thirty home runs and driving in 117 runs for the El Paso Diablos in 1976. He debuted with the Angels in 1977; however, after batting an unimpressive .230 with no home runs mostly as a pinch hitter and designated hitter, he was returned to the minors. He received a second call to the majors that September, but fared even worse, collecting just four hits in thirty at-bats.

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