CHICAGO • It’s impossible for Cardinals manager Mike Matheny to forget the date because it shares the same number he wears on his jersey and he has a watch forever frozen on it.

On June 22, 2002, Matheny was in the trainer’s room in the visitor’s clubhouse at Wrigley Field when he learned that his friend, teammate, and pitcher Darryl Kile had died during the night at a downtown Chicago hotel. On Wednesday, 14 years later, and for the first time since, the Cardinals played a game at Wrigley on the exact same date, June 22.

“This clubhouse reminds me of it almost every time,” Matheny said in his office after the Cardinals completed a sweep of the Cubs. “I remember where I was. All of it.”

One of the iconic photos from that time was of Matheny pausing on the steps of the visitors’ dugout and placing a hand on one of Kile’s jerseys that hung nearby. It’s a moment that Matheny has at his home in a painting, one of the few images he has from his career. And there is the watch.