Yankee pitcher, suburban native traded wives with teammate
NEW YORK — Fritz Peterson, the New York Yankees pitcher who famously swapped wives and families with teammate Mike Kekich in 1973, has died. He was 81.
Mr. Peterson died of lung cancer at his home in Winona, Minnesota, on Oct. 19, according to death records from the Winona County Vital Records Department. His body was cremated.
News of his death began to emerge Friday with an announcement by Northern Illinois, his alma mater, which erroneously said he was 82.
Mr. Peterson disclosed in a Facebook post in July 2018 that he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease several months earlier. He told The New York Times in 2009 that he had prostate cancer twice.
A left-hander who pitched in the major leagues from 1966-76, Mr. Peterson was a mainstay of the Yankees’ down years in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
His notoriety stemmed from the announcement during spring training in 1973 that he and Kekich were swapping wives.
Mr. Peterson had debuted with the Yankees in 1966, and Kekich was acquired in a trade from the Dodgers before the 1969 season. The teammates became friends and said that by 1972, Mr. Peterson had fallen in love with Kekich’s wife, Susanne, and Kekich fell in love with Mr. Peterson’s wife, Marilyn.
The Kekich daughters, 5-year-old Kristen and 2-year-old Reagan, moved with their mother to the Peterson house, and the Peterson sons, 5-year-old Gregg and 2-year-old Eric, moved to the Kekich home with their mother, Marilyn. While Mr. Peterson and Susanne married in 1974, Kekich and Marilyn broke up.
Fred Joseph Robert Peterson, the name listed on the death certificate, was born on Feb. 8, 1942, in Chicago.
The future pitcher attended Arlington High School in Arlington Heights and then Northern Illinois before signing with the Yankees in 1963. Mr. Peterson received a bachelor’s degree from Northern Illinois in 1965 and a master’s degree in 1967.