Posted on 06/23/2002 1:31:10 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
CHICAGO -- St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile was found dead in the team hotel Saturday, apparently of natural causes, police said.
Kile was found in his bed, said commanding officer Michael Chasen. There were no signs of forced entry and no signs of foul play.
"It appears he died in his bed, in his sleep,'' Chasen said.
The Chicago medical examiner said Saturday that the preliminary autopsy of St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile found the likely cause of his death was a 80- to 90-percent blockage of his coronary artery.
Chasen said about two hours before game time, Cardinals players realized Kile was not at Wrigley Field and called the hotel to ask that he be checked on. Workers at the Westin Hotel had to force their way into Kile's 11th-floor room because of the safety latch on the door.
Dr. Jim Loomis, the Cardinals' assistant team physician, said the 6-foot-5 Kile showed no health problems during a routine physical in spring training and was not on medication.
Loomis said he knew of no history of heart problems for the 33-year-old pitcher. Kile's father died shortly after having a heart attack in his mid-40s in 1993.
An autopsy was planned for Sunday.
The Cardinals' game against the Chicago Cubs on Saturday was called off.
"Our club is just totally staggered, I mean, devastated,'' Cardinals manager Tony La Russa said, wiping away tears. "You guys know what a pro he is.''
The death was the second in the Cardinals' organization this week.
Kile pitched the Cardinals into first place in the NL Central on Tuesday night, the same night longtime broadcaster Jack Buck died at 77 after a long illness.
"This has been a very difficult week with the loss of Jack Buck and now the loss of Darryl Kile,'' Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty said. "It is going to be real tough period for the Cardinals organization and the citizens of St. Louis.''
At a team meeting Saturday night -- with grief counselors available -- Cardinals players unanimously voted to play Sunday night against the Cubs. Kile was supposed to start that game. ESPN confirmed late Saturday night that the teams will play Sunday's game.
"Mindful of the feelings of Darryl's family, friends and teammates, and after careful discussions with representatives of both teams, I believe it is appropriate that the Cardinals and Cubs should play Sunday night,'' commissioner Bud Selig said late Saturday.
The Cardinals' meeting was an emotional one.
"We talked about how much we missed Darryl,'' reliever Steve Kline said. "Everybody came up and said something nice about him.''
Kile's widow, Flynn, was traveling from San Diego. The Kiles had 5-year-old twins, a boy and a girl, and a son who was born last August.
"My deepest sympathies go out to Darryl's family, his friends and the St. Louis Cardinals ballclub. All of baseball mourns his passing,'' commissioner Bud Selig said.
Many major league teams paid tribute to Kile before games on Saturday night.
The No. 57 jersey he wore in Houston was hanging in the Astros' dugout at Minute Maid Park. There was a moment of silence at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, the Cardinals flag was at half-staff at Turner Field in Atlanta and two pictures of Kile were put on the scoreboard in Montreal.
Loomis said Kile's brother, Danny, went to dinner with the pitcher on Friday night and Kile was back in the hotel before 10 p.m. Danny later told Loomis his brother seemed to be fine.
Several stunned players walked out of the Cardinals' clubhouse without comment soon after the game was called. Grief counselors were available at Saturday night's team meeting.
"I couldn't believe it and I still don't believe it,'' said Cubs manager Don Baylor, who managed Kile in Colorado. "DK was a very special player. He was always the perfect teammate to all the guys who played with him.''
Kile was 5-4 with a 3.72 ERA in 14 games this season.
Shortly after the game was supposed to start at 2:20 p.m., La Russa came out of the dugout and walked across the field to meet with Cubs general manager Andy MacPhail and Cubs player representative Joe Girardi. Then all the Cubs came out of the dugout and stood behind Girardi.
Speaking in front of the dugout on a microphone, Girardi told the crowd there had been a "tragedy in the Cardinals' family'' and asked fans for their prayers.
The game will be made up sometime in August.
Kile had won three of his last four starts, and had a solid work ethic.
"Once you take the ball, you've got a job to do,'' he said after his last start.
Kile, who was 16-11 with a 3.09 ERA and threw 227 1/3 innings last year, had arthroscopic surgery on his right shoulder during the offseason.
He pitched a no-hitter while with Houston in 1993 against the New York Mets. He was 133-119 in 11-plus major league seasons and known for an exceptional curveball.
Kile's best season was 2000, when he went 20-9 with a 3.91 ERA in his first year with St. Louis.
A 30th-round pick of the Astros in 1987, Kile was called up to the majors in 1991 and went 7-11. He spent his first seven major league seasons with Houston.
Kile signed with Colorado during the offseason and struggled in his two seasons with the Rockies. He led the league in losses with 17 in 1998 and was 21-30 with Colorado.
Kile was traded to St. Louis from Colorado on Nov. 16, 1999.
Deaths among active baseball players have been rare.
San Diego Padres outfielder Mike Darr was killed in a car crash in February while going to spring training.
Perhaps the most remembered deaths were those of Thurman Munson and Roberto Clemente.
Munson, the New York Yankees' captain, was killed when a plane he was piloting crashed on Aug. 2, 1979. Clemente was killed on Dec. 31, 1972, when his plane carrying relief supplies crashed on the way to Nicaragua.
Cleveland pitchers Steve Olin and Tim Crews were killed after a boating accident on March 22, 1993, during spring training at Winter Haven, Fla.
Former All-Star infielder Mike Sharperson was killed in a car accident on May 26, 1996, while playing for Triple-A Las Vegas. California Angels star Lyman Bostock was killed in a drive-by shooting in Gary, Ind., on Sept. 23, 1978.
I'm not sure of the cost but that seems a simple way to "preview" a person for potential pump & pipe problems.......yes/no ??
Stay Safe
The man died of a heart attack, leaving behind his wife and three little kids, the youngest of whom will never even remember him.
Your fetid theorizing is out of line.
This guy's family history was a bad sign.
June 23, 2002
BY TONI GINNETTI STAFF REPORTER
On a perfect day for baseball, featuring one of the game's best rivalries--Cubs vs. Cardinals--the sudden, unexplained death Saturday of a popular player, Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, brought silence to those who stood in the stands and tears to those who stood on the field.
Just hours before the game's scheduled 2:20 p.m. start, Kile, 33, was found dead in his bed at the Westin Hotel, 909 N. Michigan.
Now, standing at a microphone on the field, it was Cubs player representative Joe Girardi's job to explain to a standing-room-only crowd why the game hadn't started 15 minutes ago, and why it had to be canceled.
Choking back tears, Girardi said, "We regret to inform you that because of a tragedy in the St. Louis Cardinals family that the commissioner has canceled the game. I ask that you say a prayer for the St. Louis Cardinal family."
No further explanation was given.
But many fans had already heard the news on the radio, or from friends on cell phones. And the news spread through the stands.
"He died, was found in his hotel room," one beer vendor told another, before Girardi made his announcement.
"What was that?" asked Jeff Powell, a Cards fan from Kansas City sitting nearby.
"We can't say anything," the first beer vendor replied.
When it was clear the rumor was true, Powell was despondent. Just four days earlier, Jack Buck, the Cardinals' longtime announcer, had died.
"We just lost two family members in a week's time," Powell said.
Kile had seemed fine
Chicago police said they found no signs of foul play in Kile's 11th-floor room at the Westin and that they were awaiting an autopsy today.
Kile, married and the father of a 5-year-old boy, twin girls and a 10-month-old son, had no known illnesses or health problems, the Cardinals' assistant team physician, James Loomis, said Saturday.
"Spring training was his last physical [in March]," Loomis said. "They get an [electrocardiogram] and routine lab tests. He had off-season shoulder surgery, but obviously he had recovered from that. He was healthy and an unlikely heart attack candidate."
Kile's brother Danny, who dined with him Friday night, told authorities his brother "seemed fine" that night.
Kile's father died at age 44 of a stroke several years ago. While Loomis would not speculate on a cause of death, he said aneurysm and heart arrhythmia are typically suspected in sudden-death cases.
Kile's body was found shortly after noon by Chicago police and hotel security, who had been called by the Cardinals after the right-handed pitcher failed to arrive at Wrigley Field on Saturday.
The security latch was engaged and hotel employees had to force the door open, said Chicago police Lt. Michael Chasen.
"Apparently he passed away from natural causes," Chasen said. "It appeared that he died in his bed, in his sleep.''
First ominous signs
Because Kile was not scheduled to pitch until today, teammates who didn't see him on the team bus Saturday assumed he had taken his own transportation to the ballpark. But they became concerned when Kile did not appear before noon.
"He's usually one of the first ones here," Cardinals senior vice president and general manager Walt Jocketty said.
Jocketty said he learned that something was wrong when he arrived at Wrigley at about 12:30 p.m. and was approached by trainer Barry Weinberg. "He said there was a problem, and we needed to go back to the hotel."
Jocketty called Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa from the hotel, then called Cubs president/general manager Andy MacPhail, who then contacted the commissioner's office and the umpires.
"Obviously it's a very tragic event for the Cardinals, [Kile's] family and all of baseball," Jocketty said.
LaRussa did not speak afterward, and the Cardinals and Cubs immediately closed their clubhouses, many of the Cardinal players later leaving in tears.
A Cardinals team meeting was planned Saturday night, with employee-assistance experts from St. Louis en route to Chicago to help players and coaches cope.
The game Saturday that also had been scheduled as Fox Sports' national game of the week was canceled by Commissioner Bud Selig upon word of Kile's death.
The full house of 40,000 fans at Wrigley learned of the cancellation when Girardi made the announcement, surrounded on the field by his teammates and LaRussa. Girardi made no mention of Kile's death, however, because Kile's widow, Flynn, and other family members were only then learning the news.
Kile was a key member of the Cardinals pitching staff and had a 5-4 record and 3.72 ERA this year, helping the team climb last week to first place in the National League Central Division.
But he first made baseball history in 1993 when he threw a no-hitter against the New York Mets for the Astros.
Kile was also one of baseball's most popular and charitable players, sponsoring a program called "Kile's Kids" once in each Cardinals' home stand to provide children a chance to meet him and his teammates.
"He was a great competitor and leader on the field," Jocketty said. "He and his wife were very much in love, and he was a wonderful father. It's going to be tough."
Contributing: Art Golab and Julie Patel
A perfectly legitimate question, IMHO. If others think it insensitive, they can throw darts at me, too, because the first thing that popped into my mind when I heard this was steroids. There's been a lot of press coverage of late (in light of a coming "tell-all" book by, I think, José Conseco) about steroid use in the major leagues, and the fact that they're not banned. I'm not sure about steroids causing blockage of blood vessels, but couldn't they mask the symptoms of cardiac insufficiency, by making you feel so pumped up and powerful that pain isn't felt as much? I don't know, I'm just asking. Certainly I'm not accusing Kile of steroid use, as obviously I have no way of knowing. And even if he was using them, it's no less a tragedy. But I would hope that his family would permit an autopsy, and a public report.
If steroids (or anything else) were involved, revelation of that fact could bring about changes which could save lives in the future. And if anyone wants to call me "insensitive," well, rest assured I've been called much worse.
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