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Kile remembered as gamer, team leader Posted: Saturday June 22, 2002 9:22 PMUpdated: Tuesday June 25, 2002 4:32 PM
ST. LOUIS (AP) -- A lot of baseball people looked up to Darryl Kile. And not just because he was 6-foot-5 and stood tall on the mound. "I followed that guy around like a puppy dog. He helped me more than anybody else could," said Milwaukee pitcher Jamey Wright, a former teammate in Colorado. "He was a great person and a great friend." Kile, 33, was found dead at the team hotel Saturday, hours before his St. Louis Cardinals were scheduled to play the Chicago Cubs at Wrigley Field. He apparently died from natural causes, police said. Kile was remembered as a fierce competitor who never complained or made excuses. Oakland manager Art Howe, Kile's first manager with the Astros in 1991, said dealing with the pitcher was "a day at the beach. He just wanted the ball. He was never, never a problem." After losing, Kile never minced words, often saying simply: "I didn't do my job." Kile did the job more often than not. Featuring an exceptional curveball, he pitched a no-hitter while with Houston in 1993 and went 133-119 in 11-plus major league seasons. Los Angeles pitcher Jesse Orosco spent one year as Kile's teammate. That was in St. Louis in 2000, Kile's only 20-win season. Orosco and Kile often played golf together in the offseason.
"He loved to sit around and talk pitching, and he was a severe gamer. He loved to grab the baseball and pitch," Orosco said. "They had trouble trying and getting him out of a game because he wanted to go all the way every time. I'm really going to miss him. It's a hard thing. There are a lot of ballplayers and families who are going to be in mourning because of this." Detroit pitcher Jose Lima, Kile's former teammate in Houston, was among them. "He was an adviser for me. He told me one time that tough times never last, tough people do," Lima said. "I took it to heart." After winning 19 games for the Astros in 1997, Kile signed a free-agent deal with the Colorado Rockies. But his curveball, one of the best in the major leagues, was ineffective at high altitude and he took a beating in two seasons there. Kile came to the Cardinals a month after the 1999 season along with relievers Dave Veres and Luther Hackman. It was perhaps the deal that put the Cardinals over the top in the next season as they ended a three-year postseason absence and won the NL Central. Kile was 8-13 with a 6.61 ERA for the Rockies in 1999, and 20-9 with a 3.91 ERA for St. Louis in 2000, finishing fifth in the NL Cy Young balloting. He won 16 games last year. "He was a guy that loved to compete, loved to win," general manager Walt Jocketty said. "He demonstrated that on the field." Off the field and away from the media, Kile was one of the most well-respected Cardinals, a favorite of teammates who had a knack for keeping the clubhouse loose. Matt Morris, a 22-game winner last year, often pointed to Kile's help in transforming him into one of the top pitchers in the major leagues. On the field, he was all business. Kile avoided the limelight after games, too, never giving the media any special insight and instead feeding them a steady diet of vanilla quotes. He often chalked up big victories to luck and good defense. Kile was such a perfect soldier for manager Tony La Russa that he stood in for nervous rookie Rick Ankiel one day before an NL playoff game in 2000, rattling off his usual patter of non-answers so that some reporters didn't even notice he never confirmed he was not the actual starter of the game. Kile's vanishing curveball at altitude was never offered as an excuse for his struggles in Colorado. In his first year in St. Louis, he consistently said it was he, and not the thin air, that was to blame for his two-year trial in Denver. He also never second-guessed himself for taking a free-agent deal worth $7 million a season with the Rockies. "It had to eat at him like you can't imagine," Cardinals broadcaster Mike Shannon said. "He handled it unbelievably well." Kile got off to a slow start this season after undergoing offseason arthroscopic surgery on his shoulder. He won for the third time in four starts with an impressive performance on Tuesday night, hours before longtime Cardinals broadcaster Jack Buck died. After the last start of his life, Kile was typically circumspect. To the end, he was unselfish.
"It really doesn't matter if you have it or not, you've still got to try to get it done," Kile said. "Those guys over there will probably tell you they had some pitches to hit and they didn't hit them. And if they did, the defense made some great plays."
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Joe Girardi shares tragic news with fans at Wrigley Field, and Cubs manager Don Baylor eulogizes Kile.
