THE QUESTIONS NOT ASKED

Did Darryl Kile Regularly Use Marijuana? Did Teammates?

You may have heard about the autopsy results on Darryl Kile, the St.
Cardinals' pitcher who was found dead in July in his hotel room. You may
have heard that he died of blocked coronary arteries. But you may have
missed something.

In the wire service reports, though not in many radio and TV accounts, it
was noted that tests showed Kile had used marijuana some weeks before his
death. It was also reported that a substance believed to be marijuana was
found in Kile's room.

It's almost as if the sports media and Major League Baseball don't want to
talk about this. But if we are going to talk about performance-enhancing
drugs, we also need to talk about street drugs. Did Kile regularly use
marijuana? Did his teammates? Can marijuana exacerbate arterial disease?
What is baseball's policy on street drugs? Is it baseball that's America's
pastime? Or is it drug use?

The point is not to smear a dead man. Still, there are obvious questions
that someone needs to ask and answer - and that no one seems to want to.