Something about the death of a major league athlete at his peak sends a tremor through us all. Darryl Kile, star pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals, died in his sleep and was found Saturday.
Died in his sleep. That’s a phrase we’re used to hearing about people much, much older. Not about a 33-year-old athlete whose superb physical skills earn him $7.4 million a year.
He leaves behind wife Flynn and three small children–5-year-old twins, son Kannon and daughter Sierra, and infant son Ryker.
He leaves behind bereaved teammates, fans, and a shocked nation. Even for many who didn’t know him and never saw him play, his death resonated as a tragic example of a life cut short.
And he leaves behind some questions.
Presumably, for all he knew, he was in perfect health. He’d had an electrocardiogram during spring training, but that can often miss certain problems, doctors said. He complained of shoulder pain and weakness the night before he died. An autopsy showed his arteries dangerously blocked, his heart 25 per cent larger than normal.
Could he have known his health was precarious? Should he have suspected, or sought out further testing, given that his father had died after a heart attack at 44? Or would he have felt that would imperil his career?
Those questions cannot be answered with certainty now.
What we have learned about Darryl Kile is that he was like a lot of men. They called him John Wayne, because of his give-me-the-ball attitude, St. Louis manager Tony La Russa told a Tribune reporter. He pitched in pain. Cubs manager Don Baylor said he was known for his no-excuses attitude; Baylor had to force him to rest his arm after a grueling outing years ago. “Once you take the ball, you’ve got a job to do,” the pitcher said recently.
In other words, he was a paradigm of the modern male. This is what men do. They deny. They abuse their bodies and try to ignore the pain. They hate going to the doctor. In one survey, men were asked when they would see a doctor if they were sick or in pain. Almost one in four said they’d wait as long as possible. “Men don’t want to find something wrong,” one Chicago-area urologist told a reporter last year.
“At this age, you sometimes think you’re invincible,” a White Sox player said in the aftermath of Kile’s death.
At almost any age, a lot of men think they’re invincible.
Yes, what happened to Darryl Kile is tragic.
But the rest of us still have choices to make about our health. With luck, we will watch our kids grow up, and then some. There are no guarantees, of course. But there are plenty of warnings.
