Cardinals legend Adam Wainwright honoring team's late pitcher Darryl Kile while raising heart health awareness

St. Louis Cardinals icon Adam Wainwright is honoring former Cardinals pitcher Darryl Kile, who died in 2002 of a heart attack, by spreading awareness about heart health.

The Major League Baseball world was stunned when Darryl Kile, who threw a no-hitter in 1997, suddenly died of a heart attack at age 33 more than two decades ago.

Kile's St. Louis Cardinals were in Chicago on June 22, 2002, to take on their NL Central rival Cubs when catcher Joe Girardi announced to the Wrigley Field crowd that their game had been canceled due to a "tragedy in the Cardinals family."

Former Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright, who was in the Atlanta Braves organization at the time, said that Kile's death was the "first time" he "felt kind of vulnerable."

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Adam Wainwright is paying homage to Darryl Kile. (Getty Images)

"I was in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. And I looked over at our guys and our guys were like … you felt kind of fragile," Wainwright said in a recent interview with Fox News Digital. "If an All-Star, no-hitter-throwing pitcher in the big leagues can just die out of nowhere, then what's to say it couldn't happen to us, too?"

Wainwright joined the Cardinals the following year, and Kile's presence was still felt. His jersey hung in his locker untouched at the old Busch Stadium until it was demolished in 2005.

"That was his locker. That's how much he meant in that locker room to the guys in there. to the Mike Matheny’s and Matt Morris’s and Rick Ankiel’s and Chris Carpenter’s. Those guys were able to study under him every single day," Wainwright said. "He would teach a guy who was sitting right next to him and say, ‘What are you thinking about this right here? What are you