The Family Swap: The Bizarrely True Story of Two Yankee Baseball Players Who Decided to Trade Families

By Frank Foster

Despite the New York Yankees' storied history of abundant individual greatness and unrivaled team success, the 1972 squad was a pale imitation of the teams that had made the Bronx Bombers the most famous sports franchise in the world.

The team was ready for change, and it came on January 3, 1973, when 42-year-old Cleveland-based businessman George Steinbrenner announced that he and a group of investors had bought the Yankees from the Columbia Broadcasting System for $10 million. But as much as Steinbrenner’s acquisition of the team would alter the course of baseball history, it was overshadowed in spring training by the surprise announcement of a transaction involving the team's pitching rotation.

On March 5, left-handers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson, met with the press to announce the details of a trade they had finalized the previous October. This particular trade had been carried out without the knowledge or consent of general manager Lee MacPhail, and did not bring any new players to the team. Kekich and Peterson, friends and teammates since 1969, scandalized the sports world by announcing that each had moved out of his own home and taken up with the other’s wife and children.

While the contents of this biography have been researched, this book is not endorsed or affiliated in any way with Mike Kekich or Fritz Peterson.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookCaps
• Release date: Jul 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310728976

Book preview

LifeCaps Presents:

The Family Swap

The Bizarrely True Story of Two Yankee Baseball Players Who Decided to Trade Families

By Frank Foster

© 2011 by Golgotha Press, Inc./LifeCaps

Published at SmashWords

www.bookcaps.com

About LifeCaps

LifeCaps is an imprint of BookCaps™ Study Guides. With each book, a lesser known or sometimes forgotten life is is recapped. We publish a wide array of topics (from baseball and music to literature and philosophy), so check our growing catalogue regularly (www.bookcaps.com) to see our newest books.

Chapter 1

Despite the New York Yankees' storied history of abundant individual greatness and unrivaled team success, the 1972 squad was a pale imitation of the teams that had made the Bronx Bombers the most famous sports franchise in the world. With Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig long dead, Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle enjoying retirement and Yogi Berra at the helm of the cross-town New York Mets, manager Ralph Houk’s squad tallied 79 wins and 76 losses to finish in fourth place in the American League East, six and a half games behind the division-winning Detroit Tigers. It was the eighth consecutive year without postseason baseball for the Yankees after the team had won 15 of the previous 18 American League pennants.

This prolonged lack of success had led in turn to a relative lack of interest on the part of the team’s usually enthusiastic fan base. Fewer than one million spectators passed through the turnstiles at Yankee Stadium that season, the first time that had happened since the end of the Second World War. An average of 12,550 people attended Yankee home games in 1972, considerably below the high of 30,830 set during the team’s heyday in 1948. Meanwhile, the Mets drew twice as many fans while winning more games than the Yankees for the third time in four years.

As could be expected, changes abounded for the Yankees in the offseason, both on the field and off. A pair of late-November trades brought Matty Alou from the Oakland Athletics and Graig Nettles from the Cleveland Indians into the fold. While Alou was in the twilight of his career and would last less than one full season in the Bronx, 1973 kicked off Nettles' 11-year run as the team's regular third baseman.

Then, in a press conference at the world-famous 21 Club on January 3, 1973, 42-year-old Cleveland-based businessman George Steinbrenner announced that he and a group of investors had bought the Yankees from the Columbia Broadcasting System for $10 million. And though Steinbrenner promised that day that he would be an absentee owner who would stick to building ships, it wasn’t long before the man who would come to be known as The Boss put his indelible stamp on the one of the most tumultuous eras in the team’s history.

But as much as Steinbrenner’s acquisition of the team would alter the course of baseball history, it was overshadowed in spring training by the surprise announcement of a transaction involving the team's pitching rotation.

On March 5, left-handers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson, who had combined to start 64 of the team's 155 games in 1972, met separately with the press to announce the details of a trade they had finalized the previous October. This particular trade had been carried out without the knowledge or consent of general manager Lee MacPhail, and did not bring any new players to the team.

Kekich and Peterson, friends and teammates since 1969, scandalized the sports world by announcing that each had moved out of his own home and taken up with the other’s wife and children.

It wasn’t a wife swap, Kekich said at the time. It was a life swap.

Kekich, a hard-throwing 27-year-old who had split his time between the starting rotation and the bullpen during his time with the Yankees, broke the news first that morning. Peterson, a 31-year-old former All Star and 20-game winner with pinpoint control and a penchant for practical jokes, addressed the assembled Yankees beat writers in the afternoon. Both laid out the same basic story: the two couples had toyed with the idea of exchanging partners through much of the 1972 season, then decided on a two-month trial swap once the season had ended.

In October, Kekich had moved in with Marilyn Peterson and her sons Gregg, 5, and Eric, 2, in Mahwah, New Jersey. Fritz Peterson, meanwhile, moved in with Susanne Kekich and her daughters Kristen, 5, and Reagan, 2, eight miles away in Franklin Lakes. In December, the men briefly returned to their original families in order to make a final decision, at which point the exchange was made permanent.

But by the time Peterson and Kekich went public with the details of their private