Former main league pitcher Anthony Varvaro, who left baseball to work as a police officer, was killed in a collision en path to work at a 9/11 memorial occasion in New York Metropolis, officers mentioned.
Varvaro, who performed most of his main league days for the Atlanta Braves, was an officer of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey assigned to work the memorial in Manhattan, police and group officers mentioned.
New Jersey State Police mentioned in an announcement that he died in his adopted residence of Jersey Metropolis on Sunday when the automobile he was in was struck by an obvious “wrong-way driver.”
The company mentioned he was en path to an project on the day’s World Commerce Middle ceremonies when a Toyota RAV4 going the improper means on the New Jersey Turnpike Hudson Bay Extension East struck his automobile at 4:25 a.m. close to milepost 6.7.
The motive force of the Toyota, recognized as Henry A. Plazas, 30, of Bridgewater, was additionally killed, in response to the state police assertion.
It wasn’t clear why Plazas would have been driving within the improper path, and the reason for the collision was beneath investigation, police mentioned.
The Braves mentioned in a statement that the information was sorrowful. Varvaro performed 4 of his roughly six seasons as a professional on its squad, the group mentioned.
“He voluntarily retired from MLB in 2016 to develop into a Port Authority police officer,” the group mentioned.
His final main league residence, the Boston Crimson Sox, mentioned in an announcement, “We’re deeply saddened by the passing of former Crimson Sox pitcher Anthony Varvaro.”
Varvaro was raised within the New York Metropolis borough of Staten Island and drafted out of St. John’s School by the Seattle Mariners in 2005.
After he had proper elbow surgical procedure in 2015, Boston assigned him to the minor leagues, the place he performed for the Pawtucket Crimson Sox.
The Boston group re-signed him and invited him to spring coaching, however Varvaro left in 2016 to pursue a legislation enforcement profession.
