Former Big League Reliever-Turned-Police-Officer Anthony Varvaro Died Today En Route to a September 11th Commemoration

Just terrible news today in the baseball world, as former big league reliever Anthony Varvaro has died. He was just 37.

Varvaro pitched very well in parts of six big league seasons from 2005 to 2010, posting a career 3.23 ERA over 183.2 innings of relief. The righty retired after his age 30 season, when he was still effective, in order to become a police officer. What makes his death today all the more shocking is that he died in a car accident on the way to a September 11th commemoration at the World Trade Center in New York City. Just awful.

Deeply sad story all around, and only the best wishes to his family and friends on a terrible day. I hope Anthony Varvaro’s family finds peace.

It’s ultimately a selfish thing that so many of us instinctively associate memories of September 11th, and the emotional recovery therefrom, with baseball. It was the desire to return to normal or to happiness after the attacks, and then we got to watch our favorite sport back on the field. But obviously the gravity of what had happened does make trivial the way we connect it to sports, and sometimes I’m sorry my head goes there. Still, when news like this comes – a former baseball player, who’d become a police officer, dying on September 11 on his way to a 9/11 commemoration – it’s just an emotional jumble of all these things again. It just makes me sad, and it’s a reminder of that time and that place.