AllMovie

THE ROYAL tells the story of iconic former Kansas City Royal slugger Willie Mays Aikens, whose promising career quickly turned disastrous because of drug addiction. Aikens, to this day a World Series home run record holder, was entrapped by tricky cops and ultimately sentenced to the longest prison sentence ever given to a professional athlete in a drug case. THE ROYAL is an intimate portrait of a man taking the hard circumstances of his life and turning them around against all odds, as he seeks redemption with his estranged family and friends (including George Brett), with baseball, and ultimately with himself upon his release from prison.