Cards, Darryl Kile's family team up to educate on heart health

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ST. LOUIS -- Even now, some 23 years after the shocking death of her father, former Cardinals’ pitcher Darryl Kile, Sierra Kile was floored at how welcoming the Busch Stadium crowd was for her special appearance on Friday and at how her father’s legacy lives on in St. Louis.

Sierra, who lives in Dallas and has worked with the Rangers, was flattered to be back in St. Louis in July at an event organized by Hall of Fame manager Tony La Russa, where she listened to the many stories about her dad from Cardinals teammates. Then, before going out to the mound to throw out the ceremonial first pitch to Cards legend Adam Wainwright -- who said Kile threw one of the sharpest-breaking curveballs he studied on his rise to the big leagues -- Sierra caught a glimpse of the DK 57 memorial that still hangs in the Cardinals' dugout.

“For me, it’s amazing, and it makes me wonder if I should just move to St. Louis,” Sierra Kyle said. “It really shows what the St. Louis community is about. It’s been more than 20 years [since my father’s death], and I feel like I’m back home here. It’s like my dad was playing here a week ago. It’s always felt like a family here.”

Kile, a three-time All-Star who threw a no-hitter in 1993 and starred for the Astros, Rockies and Cardinals during in his career (1991-02), died from coronary artery disease in 2022 while he and the Cards were in Chicago to face the Cubs. Kile, a 133-game winner who piled up 1,668 strikeouts, was just 33 years old and at the height of his career when he was found dead in his hotel room.

In Kile’s memory, the Cardinals have teamed with Merck and WomenHeart to launch a heart health educational program dubbed as “Playing with Heart.” The program aims to raise awareness of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) in high-risk communities such as St. Louis.

“What people don’t know out there is that this thing called ASCVD is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S., and it’s due to the LDL, which is the bad cholesterol,” U.S. Pharma at Merck cardiovascular leader Cris Regent said. “As you have that high LDL, you don’t feel anything, you don’t know it’s there and it’s symptomless. And then one day you do feel it, and you’ve had a heart attack or stroke. This is a perfect place to start this program to honor the legacy of Darryl, and [St. Louis] is a city at risk. There was a report from the St. Louis Department of Health in 2021 with data from 2018 that showed that 1 in 450 in St. Louis died from ASCVD. So, this is a great place to start the program.”

Sierra wants to raise awareness so others don’t have to endure the same sadness that her family did when her father died.

“We had to wait until the passing of my father, who was a professional athlete and someone who passed all his physicals, and he still had a major life event happen,” Sierra said of her family focusing on their heart health. “The main goal is to spread awareness, go to your doctor, know what your cholesterol looks like and get ahead of it so you don’t have to wait until a major life event happens.”