It’s
strange how you remember certain events in your life. I don’t mean the obvious ones (wedding, birth
of a child, major world event, etc.). I
mean smaller, random moments that have an unexpected affect on you. Darryl Kile’s untimely death 10 years ago
today was one of those times for me.
I
remember exactly where I was when I heard about Darryl Kile’s death. It was a Saturday afternoon, and my wife and
I were at a car dealership looking at an SUV.
We had found out the previous Mother’s Day that she was expecting our 2nd
child, so we were going to need a bigger vehicle. As is normal for me, I was wearing a St.
Louis Cardinals cap. After a few minutes
of looking around and speaking with a salesman, he noticed my cap and said:
“Hey, sorry to hear about your team’s pitcher.”
I
had not heard anything about Kile yet.
Cardinal fans were still coping with the death of legendary announcer
Jack Buck just four days earlier – ironically, a game Kile started. I looked at
the sales guy blankly and said “What are you talking about?”
“It
was on the radio,” he said. “I think it was that guy who used to pitch for the
Rockies….” he trailed off, trying to recall the pitcher’s name.
“Darryl
Kile?” I asked, feeling a knot in my stomach.
“Yeah,
that’s the guy.”
I
no longer felt like car shopping. We
left the dealership and I immediately tuned the car radio to a sports-talk
station, which confirmed that 33-year-old Darryl Kile had been found dead in
his hotel room that morning. He left behind a wife, 5-year-old twins and a
10-month-old son, as well as friends all across the game of baseball.
“So
sad,” said my wife. The rest of our
drive home was silent.
* * * *
I
remember seeing Darryl Kile pitch for the Astros back in 1991 and being
convinced he was a stud in the making. In
his first start in the majors, he pitched six no-hit innings before being
pulled from the game. Good fastball, ridiculous 12-to-6 curve, bulldog
mentality on the mound (same thoughts I had a few years about about Adam
Wainwright). In 1993, he made the All-Star team and permanently etched his name
in the record books with a no-hitter against the Mets in September. He was on the way to being an ace. His last year in Houston, he went 19-7 with a
2.57 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 205 strikeouts in 255 innings pitched.
Then
he left Houston to sign with the Colorado Rockies.
He
said he enjoyed pitching in adverse conditions and wasn’t intimidated by Coors
Field. There was no humidor at Coors Canaveral
in those days. Kile’s devastating curveball didn’t curve at altitude. The fastball didn’t move the same way it did
at sea level. The result in 1998 was a
stunning reversal from the previous season: Kile led the NL with 17 losses, his
ERA ballooned to 5.20, and he allowed an average of 10 hits per nine innings.
The next season was worse. It was painful to watch.
Through
all that, though, Kile never complained.
He made 67 starts in his two years with the Rockies, pitching 421
innings. As the beatings continued and the losses piled up, Kile made no
excuses. He didn’t blame the thin air,
the huge outfield, the punchless road hitting, none of it. He put the blame on himself for not doing his
job well enough. I admired his poise. The results were ghastly, but Darryl Kile was
a stand-up guy his two years with the Rockies. Unlike Mike Hampton and Denny
Neagle a few years later, he never quit on his team.
By
the time the Rockies traded him to St. Louis after the 1999 season, I felt
relief for him, as well as excitement as a Cardinals fan. He was going to the right team to resurrect
his career.
And
did he ever.
His
first season in St. Louis, Kile won 20 games, made the All-Star team and
finished fifth in Cy Young voting. That
deadly curve started dropping off the table again. His strikeout-to-walk ratio was the best of
his career. He and close friend Matt
Morris were one of the best 1-2 punches in either league. They reached the NLCS before losing to the
Mets. In 2001, they were just as good.
Kile pitched the last part of that season with an injured shoulder that
required surgery after they were ousted in the NLDS by the eventual World
Champion Arizona Diamondbacks. He was
ready to go by the following spring training.
Kile
often was seen working with Morris and prized young lefty Rick Ankiel. He got along with catcher Mike Matheny so
well he once told Tony LaRussa “if Matheny isn’t catching, I’m not pitching.” LaRussa didn’t quibble.
On
June 18, 2002, Kile pitched the Cardinals into first place in the NL Central
with 7 2/3 brilliant innings against the Anaheim Angels. Four days later, they were at Wrigley Field
to face the hated Small Bears. With
Kile’s competitive nature, he surely must have been looking forward to that
type of rivalry game. But when he was absent during pregame warm-ups, teammates
grew worried. Matheny requested that someone
check Kile’s hotel room.
Joe
Girardi’s choked-up announcement that there had been “a tragedy in the
Cardinals family” chills me even now.
* * * *
People
rarely speak ill of the deceased, but I remember being amazed at the number of
stories about Darryl Kile – not only the player and teammate,
but the husband, father, and friend.
Todd Jones wrote a touching letter to Kile’s children in The
Sporting News. He was so well regarded
that his former teams, the Rockies and Astros, both chartered airplanes so his
former teammates could pay
their respects. All three teams
placed memorials in their ballparks as a tribute to the man. The Rockies’ tribute was particularly
impressive, considering how horribly his stint with the team had gone. It spoke volumes to me about how well-liked
and respected he really was.
Kile’s
jersey hung in the dugout for each game the rest of the season, but the
Cardinals avoided any public “Win it for Darryl” proclamations. The situation could have turned into a
made-for-Disney rallying cry; instead, the Cardinals narrowed their focus to
the baseball field. They added Scott
Rolen to the lineup and dominated the NL Central, winning it by 13 games. The night they clinched the division, Albert
Pujols carried Kile’s jersey out to the field where the team celebrated. St.
Louis finished with a 97-65 record. I don’t recall who noted it first, but the
Cardinals had won 57 games after that awful June day. Darryl Kile’s uniform number was 57.
They
celebrated again after knocking the Diamondbacks out of the playoffs. However, there would be no Disney-like finish
to the season. After blowing the 1-0
lead to the San Francisco Giants in Game 5 of the NLCS, the stunned looks on
the Cardinals’ faces said it all. It
wasn’t supposed to end with a crushing, two-out rally in the bottom of the 9th. Yet, it did.
Just like that, the season was over. LaRussa called it the biggest
disappointment of his career. The Cardinals
were left to face the chill rains of the fall without their friend and
teammate.
* * * *
Ten
years later, Darryl Kile’s death still saddens me. It’s not just that he played
for my two favorite teams (Cards and Rockies); no, it’s more that he was one
year older than me and had kids about the same age. Just thinking about not
being able to play catch with my daughters, take them on a roller coaster, or
just hug them makes my heart ache. A
good man was taken from his family too soon.
That’s
not to say the whole story is sad.
Besides the 57 regular-season wins, there are some other interesting
facts and figures from that season, some of which dovetail into 2012.
§ The team that Kile
beat in his last start is the team that beat the Giants in the World Series.
§ Albert Pujols now
plays for those Angels.
§ Number 57 hasn’t been
retired, but no player has worn it since 2002
§ The Cardinals and
Astros both established the Darryl Kile Good Guy award, for players who best exemplify Kile's traits of "a good teammate, a great friend,
a fine father and a humble man."
§ The first recipient of that award was Mike Matheny
§ Mike Matheny is now
the Cardinals’ manager
Although
it’s comforting to that believe the 57 wins were a sign from above, I tend to
believe it was just a coincidence. But
it was (and still is) a really cool coincidence.
The
daughter whom I watched sleep that June day is now 11. Earlier this year, we were at a Rockies game
when she asked me about the DK57 sign in the Rockies bullpen. After I explained, she asked me if Darryl
Kile was one of my favorite players.
“Yes,
honey,” I said. “Yes, he was.”