Major League Baseball Player. For 12 seasons (1991 until 2002) he pitched for the Houston Astros (1991 until 1997), the Colorado Rockies (1998 until 1999), and the St. Louis Cardinals (2000 until 2002). Born Darryl Andrew Kile, he attended Norco High School in Norco, California where he excelled in sports. He then attended Chaffey College in Rancho Cucamonga, California and was selected by the Houston Astros in the 30th round of the 1987 Major League amateur draft. In 1991 he entered the major leagues with the Astros and finished his first season with 7 wins and 11 losses. In 1993 he had a breakthrough season, winning 15 games and pitching a no-hitter. In 1997 he had his best season with the Astros, with 19 wins and 7 losses with 205 strikeouts in a career-high 255 innings pitched and 4 shutouts. The following year he signed with the Colorado Rockies as a free agent. While with the Rockies, he developed control problems and after two seasons, he won 21 games against 30 losses and his earned run average suffered. He was then traded to the St. Louis Cardinals during the off season and in his first year, he posted 20 wins against 9 losses, becoming the first Cardinal pitcher since John Tudor and Joaquin Andujar in 1985 to win 20 games in a season. The following year, he posted 16 wins and 11 losses with a 3.09 earned run average over 227 innings pitched. In 2002 he got off to a slow start, with a record of 5 wins and 4 losses into June. He was found dead at the age of 33 in his hotel room when he failed to show up for pregame warm-ups during a weekend Cardinals series in Chicago, Illinois with the Chicago Cubs. An autopsy determined that he died from a heart attack due to a 90-percent blockage in two of his coronary arteries. Over the course of his career he had 133 wins with 119 losses in 331 starts, 2,165 innings pitched, a 4.12 earned run average, and 1,668 strikeouts. He was selected to the All-Star team three times (1993, 1997, and 2000) and never went on the disabled list. He was honored by the Cardinals with a small "DK 57" sign in the home bullpen. The Houston Astros and Colorado Rockies also honored him with a similar memorial on the outfield wall of their respective baseball stadiums. In 2003, the Darryl Kile Good Guy Award was established and is presented annually to the Astros player and Cardinals player who best exemplify his traits of "a good teammate, a great friend, a fine father and a humble man." The winners are chosen respectively, by the Houston and St. Louis chapters of the Baseball Writers Association of America.