Metro

Former MLB pitcher-turned-Port Authority cop killed on way to Manhattan’s 9/11 service

A former Major League Baseball pitcher who left the mound to become a Port Authority cop was killed in a wrong-way crash Sunday — while headed to work at Manhattan’s 9/11 service, cops and sources said.

Officer Anthony Varvaro, 37 — a Staten Island native who pitched mainly for the Atlanta Braves during his six-year MLB career — joined the Port Authority Police Department in 2016, starting out at the World Trade Center Command, according to American Police Beat magazine.

The married father of four eventually became an instructor at the department’s police academy, the mag said in February — and a Port Authority source told The Post on Sunday that Varvaro was headed to work at the commemoration of the 21st anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks at the World Trade Center when he was killed.

“He was a real sweetheart,” said a Staten Island baseball coach whose team had played against kids coached by Varvaro.

“He didn’t have an attitude. You would never know that he pitched in the Major Leagues,” the coach said of the cop.

The source said the cop helped children learn the game in his off time.

Anthony a Staten Island native pitched mainly for the Atlanta Braves during his six-year MLB career.
Anthony Varvaro, a Staten Island native, pitched mainly for the Atlanta Braves during his six-year MLB career. Pouya Dianat/Atlanta Braves/Getty Images

“He loved coaching and teaching the kids,” the man said.

In a statement Sunday, Frank Conti, president of the Port Authority Police Benevolent Association, said the union was “shocked and saddened” by the veteran cop’s tragic death.

“Anthony’s life was taken from us as he prepared to honor the lives of the 37 Port Authority police officers who perished on Sept. 11, 2001, at the World Trade Center,” Conti said. “Police Officer Anthony Varvaro will always be honored and never forgotten.”

He called Varvaro “a child of Staten Island, where he grew up among the families of fallen 9/11 police officers and firefighters.”

Varvaro graduated from St. John’s University with a degree in criminal justice and was assigned to the Port Authority’s World Trade Center Command, “patrolling the sacred grounds of the World Trade Center,” the union rep said.

Conti recalled Varvaro once saying he was “honored” to work with the unit.

“It really hit home — I knew many who died here,” Varvaro said of his time at the Ground Zero command center, according to Conti.

Authorities said Varvaro was killed in a head-on crash near Exit 14-C in a Jersey City stretch of the New Jersey Turnpike.

The vehicle operator who struck him was driving the wrong way at the time, authorities told the Daily Voice of New Jersey.

The source said the cop helped children learn the game in his off time.
The source said the cop helped children learn the game in his off time. PAPD

“The entire Port Authority family is heartbroken to learn of the tragic passing of Officer Anthony Varvaro,” said PA Chairman Kevin O’Toole and Executive Director Rick Cotton in a joint statement Sunday. 

“Officer Varvaro represented the very best of this agency, and will be remembered for his courage and commitment to service,” they said. “On behalf of the agency, we send our deepest condolences to Officer Varvaro’s wife, Kerry, his four children and his family and friends.”

In addition to pitching for the Braves, Varvaro hurled fastballs for the Seattle Mariners and Boston Red Sox — all between 2010 and 2015 before moving on to join the police force.

“We are deeply saddened on the passing of former Braves pitcher Anthony Varvaro,” the Braves said in a Twitter post Sunday. “Anthony, 37, played parts of six seasons in the majors, including four with Atlanta.

“He voluntarily retired from MLB in 2016 to become a Port Authority police officer.”

Additional reporting by David Meyer