When 2 Yankees Pitchers Swapped Wives | Crazy Interesting Posts | New York Post

A baseball "trade" that made New York Post history occurred in 1973, when Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich, of the New York Yankees, swapped wives. The swingers made the switch at a party hosted by sports writer, Maury Allen. The drama that followed kept readers interested for months.

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From 'ExYank Fritz recalled for family switch'

In the end, Fritz Peterson has tried to do the best he could in every situation.

When he swapped families with fellow Yankees pitcher Mike Kekich in the early ’70s, he thought it was for the best. Marilyn Peterson moved in with Kekich. Susanne Kekich moved in with Peterson. Each couple had two children. They figured the children needed to be with their mothers. Fritz thought the new arrangement would last forever for both couples.

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It did for Susanne and Fritz. “We’ve been married for over 35 years,” Peterson told The Post. “She’s a good one, and I wonder what would have happened if we started out from the beginning with each other.”

He paused and added, “You can’t wonder ‘What if?’ It’s ‘What is.’

Peterson, a left-hander, holds the record for the lowest ERA (2.52) at the old Yankee Stadium, but nobody remembers him for that.

“I don’t advocate divorce,” Peterson said. “I don’t advocate people doing what we did, but it happened. We were all hopeful and probably naive, thinking that it could work out for all us and our kids. I guess we were in love and didn’t see the future.”

Susanne and Fritz have three children of their own and live in New Jersey and Colorado. They spend a lot of time in a travel trailer, raising money for cancer research. Peterson is in his second battle with prostate cancer.

It didn’t work out for Marilyn and Mike, but both are happily remarried.

“Both have done very well in life,” Peterson said. “Marilyn did a real nice job raising my two boys, who were 5 and 2 at the time. Mike and Susan had two girls that were also 5 and 2. I remember Dr. Joyce Brothers’ comment right after it happened. She said one couple would make it and one would not. She happened to be right.

“Divorce always hurts the kids, that’s sad,” Peterson said. “It could be worse, but it could be better. They’re good kids and they’re doing fine.”

Peterson, 67, wrote a book called “Mickey Mantle Is Going to Heaven.”

“I wasn’t in the inner circle with Mickey, but he liked me,” said Peterson, who will be at the Yogi Berra Museum on Sept. 17 for a book signing (www.mintpros.com) and other locations over the next three weeks. Peterson has a great sense of humor and is contemplating a “Casket Signing,” when he signs autographs from a casket.

As for his cancer, he is working with Dr. Richard Williams of the University of Iowa in a research project. This week Peterson was put on hormone therapy.

“After I found it came back, I thought: ‘I’m in trouble life-wise because, in essence, there is no stopping it.’ ”

He’s been looking hard at life — and the afterlife.

“I started getting very serious about studying about salvation because I was now going to face it,” said Peterson, who deals with the subject in his book while giving an inside look at the Yankees clubhouse during his 11 years in the organization and, of course, his ingenious pranks.

He’s still pulling them, recently getting Moose Skowron to believe that the Hall of Fame had requested his pacemaker “when you pass of course” in an “official” letter sent to the former first baseman.

“In thinking over all my friends, Mantle, [Thurman] Munson, Murcer, Johnny Blanchard, all the ones who have died, I was concerned about their salvation when they died, not so much with Bobby Murcer. I think I know better with that one,” he said.

“This is the part that even my friends think I’m crazy, but I’m not. God, in the long run, will save everyone. There is a hell and there is a heaven and people will go both places, but hell is not forever,” Peterson said. “It doesn’t make a difference what religion people are, God will bring them home in time.

“I’ve been racing time to get this book out. I’m a P.E. major, not an English major,” he said with a laugh. “I just wanted it out there in case anything happens to me. I get to tell about my marriage situation back in the ’70s. I straightened out a lot of mistakes that are out there. I think the book brings laughter and tears.”

Life brings both. No one knows that better than Fritz Peterson.

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