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Sunday, September 11, 2022

Former MLB pitcher-turned-Port Authority cop Anthony Varvaro 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.

Tragic 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.

RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 11, 2022 at 05:59 PM | 9 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
  Tags: anthony varvaro, obituaries

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   1. cHiEf iMpaCt oFfiCEr JE Posted: September 12, 2022 at 08:18 AM (#6095811)
So awful.
   2. SoSH U at work Posted: September 12, 2022 at 08:27 AM (#6095812)
That's devastating. RIP.
   3. i don't vibrate on the frequency of the 57i66135 Posted: September 12, 2022 at 11:49 AM (#6095823)
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.

the linguistics of this sentence are a ####### nightmare.


was varvaro driving on the wrong side of the road? or was he run into by someone driving on the wrong side of the road?
how fast was he going?
was anyone else injured?
   4. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 12, 2022 at 02:33 PM (#6095846)
   5. Captain Joe Bivens, Pointless and Wonderful Posted: September 12, 2022 at 03:58 PM (#6095857)
was varvaro driving on the wrong side of the road?


Doubtful. I would guess that 100% of the time, the wrong-way driver is either drunk or elderly. Or both.

Here's a tip I got from a veteran drunk: Late at night, when there is light traffic on the highways, always drive in the right lane, because drunk drivers know they are drunk and will drive in the right lane, to avoid scrutiny. So if you're going one way in the right lane, and the drunk s coming at you in the lane that is the drunk's right lane, you'll likely avoid a collision.
   6. i don't vibrate on the frequency of the 57i66135 Posted: September 12, 2022 at 05:23 PM (#6095865)
Doubtful. I would guess that 100% of the time, the wrong-way driver is either drunk or elderly. Or both.

you've never seen a police car (or ambulance, for that matter) speed down the wrong way of a street?


btw: a bit more background about the linguistics issues that are triggering me here:
With regard to victim-blaming: It turns out that by far the most common way for the press to describe a crash is to write, “A pedestrian was hit” or “A pedestrian was hit by a car.” These sentences shift blame onto pedestrians in three ways.

First, they focus on the pedestrian [...]

Second, both sentences use the passive voice to play tricks with agency. Writing “A pedestrian was hit” omits an agent altogether. The crash just happened to the pedestrian. No one caused it. And if no one caused it, no one is accountable. There’s a reason people sometimes call this type of passive voice the exonerative tense — it’s how people talk when they need to acknowledge something bad happened, but would rather not dive too far into why. Fully one-third of the crash coverage we examined omitted an agent.



beyond that, i have a few more questions:

-- what time of day did the accident occur?
-- was there another vehicle involved, or was this a one-car accident?
-- did varvaro fall asleep at the wheel?
-- what was varvaro's BAC?


and lastly, i also take issue with the article's usage of the verb "killed", rather than the more neutral "died". "killed" implies that there was purposeful intent behind varvaro's death. i didn't rtfa, but based on the excerpt, i see no evidence that supports any intent behind his death. is that just sloppy editing/reporting? possibly. but as it's coming from the nypost, with a headline that doesn't even include the fact that varvaro died in a car accident, it reads more like a deliberate attempt to reinforce a certain sentiment to its readers.
   7. BDC Posted: September 12, 2022 at 05:41 PM (#6095869)
I don't sense anything obviously misleading about the language here.

(1) Passive voice is used of deaths when one is more interested in the person who died than in the killer or inanimate cause. Here, Varvaro is the focus, as is appropriate. (And should be: RIP.)

(2) "Kill" is often used of non-intentional death, so frequently that the main sense in OED is this, italics mine: "To put to death; to deprive of life; to slay, slaughter. In early use implying personal agency and the use of a weapon; later, extended to any means or cause which puts an end to life, as an accident, over-work, grief, drink, a disease, etc."

My assumption would be that a police-academy instructor on his way to work was sober and careful, and sometimes things simply happen. Again, RIP.
   8. RoyalsRetro (AG#1F) Posted: September 12, 2022 at 06:01 PM (#6095873)
beyond that, i have a few more questions:

-- what time of day did the accident occur?
-- was there another vehicle involved, or was this a one-car accident?
-- did varvaro fall asleep at the wheel?
-- what was varvaro's BAC?


Folks, read the article once in awhile! The other driver was driving the wrong way on a one-way street and struck Varvaro. It links to this story.

Anthony Varvaro, a 37-year-old married father of four, and former major league pitcher — was struck by Henry A. Plaras, 30, of Bridgewater, who was heading west on the Hudson Bay Extension in the eastbound lanes around 4:25 a.m. in Jersey City, New Jersey State Police Trooper Charles Marchan said.

Plaras' Toyota Rav4 struck Varvaro in a Nissan Maxima head-on causing the Nissan to strike the right concrete barrier. The crash remains under investigation.

Varvaro was on his way to work at the 9/11 commemoration at World Trade Center Command, Port Authority Police Supt. Edward Cetnar said.


I do agree with your concerns about passive voice when dealing with car collisions - and where you see it a lot more - police shootings.
   9. i don't vibrate on the frequency of the 57i66135 Posted: September 12, 2022 at 06:14 PM (#6095874)
Folks, read the article once in awhile! The other driver was driving the wrong way on a one-way street and struck Varvaro. It links to this story.

thank you for that link; that article is substantially better than the nypost one that was originally posted.

the headline alone addresses nearly every question/issue i had with the nypoost's coverage:
Port Authority Officer Who Pitched In MLB, Wrong Way Driver Both Killed In NJ Turnpike Crash

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