After retiring from baseball, Tepedino served as a firefighter for the New York City Fire Department. Following the September 11 attacks, Tepedino drove to the World Trade Center site and participated in search and rescue operations. During an assembly at Rocky Point High School six years afterward, Tepedino said, "I lost 343 friends on September 11, 2001," referring to his fire department colleagues. "I didn't know them all personally, but they were all my friends." On October 11, 2001, one month after the attacks, Tepedino threw out the first pitch at the second game of the 2001 American League Division Series at Yankee Stadium.Yankee for Life, Bobby Murcer and Glen Waggoner, p. 227, Harper Collins, 2008, New York,
