The bizarre story of the Yankees pitchers who swapped families

Baseball is no stranger to quirky characters, with suspicions and unwritten rules playing huge parts in America’s pastime, but this could perhaps be the strangest story of them all with two Yankees pitchers swapping their wives and entire families.

The two Yankees involved were Mike Kekich and Fred (Fritz) Peterson. Both players were members of the Bronx Bombers during the late 1960s into the early 70s.

Whilst both were pitchers for the Yankees, it was Peterson who had a far more distinguished career, earning an All-Star appearance in 1970. Kekich was a mediocre pitcher, finishing his career with a 4.31 ERA.

Both Kekich and Peterson lived in New Jersey and become good friends during their time playing together in New York.

Given what happens later, it is worth knowing who was married to who. Kekich was married to Susanne and Peterson was married to Marilyn.

Since becoming good friends in the summer of 1969, Kekich and Peterson had spent a lot of time together, which often included family get-togethers. They lived so close to each other that regular BBQs and dinners were held, often unplanned.

The wheels for the swap started to move at a party in 1972, the four arrived together and spent the evening as a group, but when they left Kekich would go home with Marilyn and Peterson with Susanne.

After the initial swap, everyone involved seemed to have a good time and they repeated the experience the next night after meeting for a steak dinner. Mike Kekich and Marilyn left the dinner early and Fritz Peterson and Marilyn stayed to enjoy some drinks and each other’s company.

Over the summer of 1972, this would become a regular occurrence for the quartet, meeting at a New Jersey diner and leaving with each other’s partner.

At one point during the summer of ‘72, at least one member of the group got cold feet and decided to put their arrangement on hold, with everyone staying at their marital homes for over a week.

Fritz Peterson was the first to break, announcing, “I told Marilyn I just have to have Susanne and Marilyn said she was in love with Mike”.

By December of ‘72, all four had realised their true feelings and decided to make the arrangement official, with Mike Kekich moving in with Marilyn Peterson and Fritz Peterson packing up his belongings and moving into the Kekich family home with Susanne.

In March of 1973, with rumors swirling of wife swapping, the two Yankees held a press conference to clear the air. During the announcement, Mike Kekich proclaimed, “Unless people know the full details, it could turn out to be a nasty type of thing. Don’t say this was wife-swapping, because it wasn’t. We didn’t swap wives, we swapped lives”

At the press conference were Yankee’s general manager Lee MacPhail and manager Ralph Houk, who both expressed their support for the arrangement, Houk stating, “They live their own lives and they’ve got a lot of years to live. If you’re not happy, you only go through the world one time and why go through it unhappy?”

Much like their baseball careers, the wife swap was far more successful for Fritz Peterson than Mike Kekich. Peterson and Susanne are still married to this day, whilst Kekich and Marilyn who broke up soon after the arrangement was made official.

Whilst this story is a truly bizarre one, everyone involved made decisions which they thought were the best for them at the time. One thing we do know, is we may never see a shift like this again in baseball.