(Originally published by the Daily News on Tuesday, March 6, 1973; written by Phil Pepe)
Fort Lauderdale, Fla., March 5 – Yankee pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich disclosed today that they had exchanged families several months ago, Peterson moving in with Susanne Kekich and her two daughters, Kekich moving in with Marilyn Peterson and her two sons.
The pitchers, in separate talks, said they had decided to reveal the arrangement because too many people knew about it. They thought it was time to clear the air and, the 31-year-old Peterson confided, they hoped that “you won’t make anything sordid out of this.”
According to Kekich: “Unless people know the full details, it could turn out to be a nasty type thing. Don’t say this was wife-swapping, because it wasn’t. We didn’t swap wives, we swapped lives.”
No Grounds Required
Kekich, who is 27, however, admitted he is somewhat bitter because Peterson and Mike’s wife, Susanne are very happy together, but Mike and Peterson’s wife, Marilyn, have separated.
New Jersey, where the four have resided for four years, requires simply that the parties prove separation for a year in order to file for divorce. It’s a “no-fault” rule, meaning no grounds are required.
Peterson said he and Susanne Kekich would initiate divorce proceeding next October.
The wives were unavailable for comment. Peterson said Susanne was “too emotionally upset to discuss the matter.”
The Yankees are aware of the situation and general manager Lee MacPhail said both pitchers asked not to be traded. However, Peterson said he had asked MacPhail to trade him “for personal reasons” back in January, but that MacPhail considered Peterson too vital.
“I want to be where Fritz is,” Mike said, “that’s the only way I can be sure of seeing my daughters.”
Manager Ralph Houk said it was a situation he too could live with, that it would not rip apart his team that has its best chance of winning a pennant since 1964. He said Kekich is working harder than ever in spring training and that he talked with Peterson, still unsigned, today and found him “in a good frame of mind.”
“They live their own lives,” Houk said, “and they’ve got a lot of years to live. If you’re not happy, you go only through the world one time and why go through it unhappy? Some people say you have to stay together for the sake of the kids. We’ve seen people living together and they’re practically separated.”
Kekich and Peterson admitted that while the arrangement and the complications that followed could not help but affect their personal relationship, it would have no effect on them as ballplayers.
“In here,” Kekich said, meaning the clubhouse, “we’re still teammates. I suppose I’m fortunate in being able to disassociate myself from other things. When I play baseball, I play baseball, with nothing else on my mind. He’ll be a teammate. There’s only one way to play baseball and the way to play baseball is as a team.”
‘Rooting for Mike’
Peterson said pretty much the same thing. “I’ll be rooting for Mike when he’s pitching. I hope he wins 20 games this year. I hope I win 20. I hope all our pitchers win 20.”
Both Peterson and Kekich tried to explain why such an arrangement could have come about, hoping to make it sound anything but sordid. “There are degrees of love involved,” Kekich said. “We all tried something with a common understanding. It was completely a four-way thing,”
They had known each other for four years, since Kekich joined the Yankees in 1969 and became Peterson’s roommate, and close friend. It was natural, and inevitable, that the two couples should socialize and that’s how the attractions were formed.
As the story evolved, Kekich explain that it started with “a tremendous amount of affection and compatibility all around. After a while, it became apparent that Susanne and Fritz were ideally suited for each other.”
Kekich and Marilyn (Chip) Peterson had a strong physical attraction for each other, “but we’re born under the same sign, we sometimes butt heads. She and I are on a higher pitch in our emotions.”
Nevertheless, the four agreed to an arrangement. It began last July, with all four discussing the possibility of exchanging families. We had a fantastic, storybook relationship,” Kekich said of the two couples, “but we wanted to make sure we were going to have a great happiness.”
They even discussed splitting up the children, the older Peterson son, Gregg, 5, remaining with his dad, and the older Kekich daughter, Kirsten, staying with her father. But that didn’t work, even after the two wives changed places.
What Kekich didn’t reckon with was the story having an unhappy ending. While Peterson found happiness with Kekich’s wife, Mike did not find what he had thought he would with Peterson’s wife.
“The only way I could justify giving up my daughters,” Kekich said, “was for a love far greater than any I have ever known. By American standards, Susanne and I had a good marriage. But I wanted a great marriage. I was idealistic, I guess.”
Kekich’s wife is here with Peterson and has been all spring. But Kekich and Marilyn Peterson have had an on-again, off-again relationship since Dec. 14, when the switch took place. Marilyn arrived here and all concerned hoped she and Mike can give their story a happy ending.
“There’s still something very strong there for the two of us,” says Mike, “but we’re both so mixed up. We have qualities, idiosyncrasies that rub the other person wrong.
“I would like it to work out, but I’m really dubious now. Love is the strongest emotion I ever felt in my life. I’m one of the biggest soul searchers around. I don’t give a damn what other people say, but Marilyn does. I have a little heartache I can’t be with my girls and I’m sad that Marilyn and I can’t work things out. I can’t tell you know perfect it would have been if it worked.”
Peterson also hopes his wife and Mike can find a life together, “for the sake of the kids. I don’t have anything to hide. I didn’t steal anybody’s wife. I’m not ashamed. I have as much to lose as he does. More. But material things don’t count in situations like this.”
Fritz recently built a house in Franklin Lakes, N.J. Not coincidentally, he spent the winter in a home rented by the Kenkiches, also in Franklin Lakes. That indicated the closeness of the couples and their mutual understanding.
“I suppose I was hen-pecked,” Fritz admitted. “I always checked home before I made a decision. Susanne and I now both feel we’re free people. Now we have free minds. It would have been perfect if things worked out, but I don’t feel guilty.”
In discussing their arrangement, both couples tried to take into their consideration the feelings of their children, conditioning them to the change. Peterson, in particular, says he went out of his way to build up Mike to his sons.
“I tried to make him out to be a super idol,” Fritz said. “I said he was stronger, faster than me. Kids are impressed with things like that. Mike would have been a godfather for my boys.”
“Regrets?” Peterson said. “I have no regrets, only for my kids. It’s hard to think of them with no father.”
There was a time when the whole arrangement was called off and the pitchers returned to their wives. But, Peterson said, “I told Marilyn I just have to have Suzanne and Marilyn said she was in love with Mike.”
That’s when the final move was made, on Dec. 14. At the time, Peterson said: “I didn’t think I was putting the kids outside the door and saying goodbye. That’s the only thing I feel. That they’re going to be without a father. That eats me up. But I can’t go back. I’ll never go back.”
