The spirit of Darryl Kile lives at Busch Stadium in St. Louis.

The initials and jersey number  (57) of the late pitcher, who died 23 years ago of heart disease, remain painted in the bullpen. He’s still talked about warmly within the organization, even among people who never knew him. And the Cardinals and the Houston Astros – his first team – annually give out an award in his name to the player in each organization who shares the humble Kile’s traits of being an outstanding father, teammate and friend.

And his family hopes the lessons learned in his death can help save lives.

His daughter, Sierra Kile, will be at Busch Stadium on Friday night as a representative of “Playing with Heart,” an educational program that aims to help people learn more about heart disease. It’s being run by pharmaceutical manufacturer Merck and WomenHeart, a national advocacy group.

She will be joined by former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, who never played with Kile, in throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Friday.

Sierra and her twin brother, Kannon, were just 5 when their father died June 22, 2002. Their brother, Ryker, was a baby.

A three-time All-Star, Darryl Kile was with the Cardinals in Chicago as his club was scheduled to go against the Cubs that day. When he didn’t get on the team bus – and didn’t arrive at Wrigley Field as game time approached – his teammates knew something was wrong.

He was found unresponsive in his hotel room and declared dead. His cause of death was listed as a heart attack after an autopsy showed two of his arteries were 90% blocked.

His father, David, also had died of heart-related issues at age 44.

Darryl was 33.

“Preventing heart disease has been pretty important with my family with my father passing away suddenly from a heart attack, and my grandfather dying too from a heart attack," Sierra Kile told Bob Nightengale of USA Today in a lengthy interview published Sunday. “So, it definitely runs in the family, which is a bummer. But it makes me and my brothers and my mom especially more aware of what’s going on with our family's risk and history of the disease.

“I think most of the community is not really aware of the importance it is to speak to a doctor and getting ahead of things. ... I don’t want other families to have to go through what we did, where a major cardiovascular event happens, and then it’s too late."

“That’s kind of what happened with my dad,” she continued. “He passed his physicals, but he didn’t know there was a deeper issue."