BBTF's Newsblog Discussion :: Ex-Yankee Fritz Peterson has no regrets 40 years after wife swap

Baseball Primer Newsblog
— The Best News Links from the Baseball Newsstand

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Ex-Yankee Fritz Peterson has no regrets 40 years after wife swap

Fritz & Susanne & ~~Mike & Marilyn~~ request the company of your pleasure.

He knows interest will only increase if actors Ben Affleck and Matt Damon follow through on their plans to make “The Trade,” a movie based in part on a book about the swap written by the late sports writer Maury Allen.

Peterson said he has agreed to be a consultant for Warner Brothers.

“I’m sure people are still wondering and that’s why I hope the movie comes out,’’ he said, “because they’re going to find out it was nicer than what they thought was going on.’’

...The New York Post in February 2011 reported that Kekich, 67, was “panic-stricken” about the movie and is trying to stop it. His first wife hopes he succeeds.

But Peterson said Susanne, who did not join him in Fort Lauderdale for the charity game, will be thrilled to know that several of his former teammates asked about her Saturday.

“She is not ready to come to these things. She will, I hope, some day because they all ask about her. They all like her.”

Peterson tugged on the bill of his Yankees cap and said, “She knows once I cross the Mississippi, I can put this hat on. I hide it (at home in Iowa). We don’t want to bring up any knowledge of the fact because we have a 16-year-old and she doesn’t even know I played. Once she finds out that, then she’ll find out the other thing and we don’t think she’s quite ready for it yet.”

Repoz Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:08 PM | 50 comment(s) Login to Bookmark
Tags: history, yankees

Reader Comments and Retorts

Go to end of page

Statements posted here are those of our readers and do not represent the BaseballThinkFactory. Names are provided by the poster and are not verified. We ask that posters follow our submission policy. Please report any inappropriate comments.

1. Swedish Chef Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:27 PM (#4355652)

"A+. Would swap again."

2. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:31 PM (#4355655)

“She knows once I cross the Mississippi, I can put this hat on. I hide it (at home in Iowa). We don’t want to bring up any knowledge of the fact because we have a 16-year-old and she doesn’t even know I played. Once she finds out that, then she’ll find out the other thing and we don’t think she’s quite ready for it yet.”

WHAT???

Also, she's 16. She has the internet. She knows.

3. Edmundo got dem ol' Kozma blues again mama

Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:37 PM (#4355657)

They had a daughter 24 years after getting married? Wow.

4. Tripon Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:46 PM (#4355662)

Wasn't there supposed to be a comedy about this coming out?

5. Fancy Pants Handle struck out swinging Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:52 PM (#4355665)

She is not ready to come to these things. She will, I hope, some day because they all ask about her.

I can imagine why.

6. Dock Ellis

Posted: January 26, 2013 at 05:53 PM (#4355666)

Matt Damon and Ben Affleck expressed interest in writing, directing and/or starring in this story, but that was nearly two years ago. Both are always busy, so it may be at least a couple years before we see the proposed film, if at all.

7. shozzlekhan Posted: January 26, 2013 at 06:36 PM (#4355693)

“She knows once I cross the Mississippi, I can put this hat on. I hide it (at home in Iowa). We don’t want to bring up any knowledge of the fact because we have a 16-year-old and she doesn’t even know I played. Once she finds out that, then she’ll find out the other thing and we don’t think she’s quite ready for it yet.”

The word "played" is ambiguous here.

8. flournoy Posted: January 26, 2013 at 07:27 PM (#4355708)

Also, she's 16. She has the internet. She knows.

I don't know about that. How many 16-year-olds are digging up dirt on their parents online? I had never heard this story in my life, and I'm a baseball fan.

I do think she's a little old to have this kept from her, but that's not my business, I don't suppose...

9. ecwcat Posted: January 26, 2013 at 07:39 PM (#4355712)

I agree...it's awfully presumptuous to believe that just because the internet exists a teen is going to be searching for her dad online. Most teens I know have no interest in even searching their own names, and surely don't care enough about their parents.

10. OsunaSakata Posted: January 26, 2013 at 07:56 PM (#4355719)

I agree...it's awfully presumptuous to believe that just because the internet exists a teen is going to be searching for her dad online. Most teens I know have no interest in even searching their own names, and surely don't care enough about their parents.

But most teens' parents are nobody slightly famous. Heck, there may well be a 16-year-old reading this, or TFA, and it will soon get back to her.

11. The Yankee Clapper Posted: January 26, 2013 at 08:02 PM (#4355721)

Unless he goes exclusively by "Fred Peterson" back in Iowa, everyone knows. Even if the kid didn't do an Internet search, some other kid has a parent who was a baseball fan from that era or is reasonably well-informed, and kids are known to talk (and/or text) for the slightest reason.

12. Matt Clement of Alexandria Posted: January 26, 2013 at 08:34 PM (#4355739)

Most teens I know have no interest in even searching their own names, and surely don't care enough about their parents.

I don't know many teens personally, but I remember being enormously self-obsessed and having enormously self-obsessed friends.

13. ellsbury my heart at wounded knee Posted: January 26, 2013 at 09:10 PM (#4355751)

I've never googled my parents, nor had any inclination to, but that may be due more to my knowing that little good would probably come of it. I'd say the main concerns for the 16-year old would be her friends or people at her school.

14. Bruce Markusen Posted: January 26, 2013 at 09:19 PM (#4355756)

Had a chance three or four years ago to interview Fritz Peterson at the CVS Pharmacy in Cooperstown, and it was easily one of the best experiences I've ever had in talking to a retired or current ballplayer. Fritz was cooperative, friendly, and outgoing to the nth degree. Although I really had no interest in asking him about the "swap," he was willing to do so, and very excited about the possibility of the film with Affleck and Damon.

Largely because of the swap, Peterson remains an underrated pitcher. He was a very good No. 2 starter to Mel Stottlemyre's No. 1, and I believe he still holds some sort of record for the lowest ERA by a left-hander at the original Stadium.

15. Lassus Posted: January 26, 2013 at 09:30 PM (#4355760)

Had a chance three or four years ago to interview Fritz Peterson at the CVS Pharmacy in Cooperstown,

?

16. ERROR---Jolly Old St. Nick

Posted: January 26, 2013 at 10:22 PM (#4355773)

Largely because of the swap, Peterson remains an underrated pitcher. He was a very good No. 2 starter to Mel Stottlemyre's No. 1, and I believe he still holds some sort of record for the lowest ERA by a left-hander at the original Stadium.

Peterson was very good in 1969 and 1970, and slightly above average in 1968 and 1971, but his overall career ERA+ was 101, and that unadjusted ERA record for Yankee Stadium I simply reflects the low offense era he pitched in.

17. Bruce Markusen Posted: January 26, 2013 at 10:53 PM (#4355782)

18. Lassus Posted: January 27, 2013 at 12:39 AM (#4355821)

CVS has done signings on Hall of Fame weekends for the last three or four years. It started one year with John "The Count" Montefusco, before continuing with Hall of Famers, and some ex-Yankees like Peterson and Ron Blomberg. They've been pretty well attended.

Being familiar with CVS in this part of the world, I'll admit I didn't expect that. Although, of course, Cooperstown is certainly special in that regard.

19. Bruce Markusen Posted: January 27, 2013 at 12:58 AM (#4355825)

Lassus, my wife used to work there. I also have some good friends on the current staff. I'm not sure if they're planning to continue the signings at this year's induction weekend.

20. Walt Davis Posted: January 27, 2013 at 01:35 AM (#4355835)

I don't know many teens personally, but I remember being enormously self-obsessed and having enormously self-obsessed friends.

My teen years were a long time ago but I recall us talking, joking and snickering about pretty much anything sexual -- including a couple of Yankee pitchers who swapped wives! Can you believe it?

If her friends somehow don't know maybe it's just a sign that wife swapping has lost its shock value. OK, I find that a little hard to believe but there's no group of kids unaffected by adultery and divorce and there's not a TV heroine who isn't in a love triangle with two vampires so they're probably used to "this intimacy thing is complicated."

21. base ball chick Posted: January 27, 2013 at 02:43 AM (#4355849)

3. Edmundo believes in Pierre reviewed cybergenics Posted: January 26, 2013 at 06:37 PM (#4355657)

They had a daughter 24 years after getting married? Wow.

yeh that is having a baby in their early 50s

22. Infinite Yost (Voxter)

Posted: January 27, 2013 at 04:08 AM (#4355851)

I find the idea that the girl doesn't know -- or at least, hasn't heard rumors -- laughable. Nothing's private anymore, guys. Just how it is.

23. SoSH U at work Posted: January 27, 2013 at 09:05 AM (#4355872)

I think it's possible, but it would take at least four conditions in place:

He no longer goes by Fritz.
He doesn't have any home contact (visits, calls) from friends from his ballplaying days.
He didn't share with his daughter that he played at all (which he says is the case).
He and his wife relocated to an area where people didn't know him beforehand.

If all four happened, it's possible that his daughter (or most anyone else in their Iowa town), never made the connection between Fred and Susanne Peterson and Fritz and Suzanne. It's also quite possible that this particular article may kill his secret.

24. Dock Ellis

Posted: January 27, 2013 at 09:26 AM (#4355876)

He no longer goes by Fritz.

I have definitely googled my parents, just as I've googled my own name, so I would assume that a bored teenager would too, at one point. Fritz Peterson of course yields many mentions/pictures of the ballplayer. If she searches for that, the jig would definitely be up. But googling Fred Peterson yields nothing. But yeah, sooner or later, she's going to find out.

I submit that it's also possible he doesn't know she already knows.

25. OsunaSakata Posted: January 27, 2013 at 10:15 AM (#4355892)

26. Benji Posted: January 27, 2013 at 02:35 PM (#4356029)

I liked Fritz in "Ball Four" but as a teenager surrounded by Yankee fans, the whole "life swap" story still rankles. When we Met fans tried to bust them about it they went ballistic. "That has nothing to do with baseball!!!" Certainly not, but then why did Cleon Jones getting busted for solicitation in a van a couple years later give them carte blanche to ridicule us? Did that have something "to do with baseball"? Sorry but there was not BTF to vent on in those days.

27. What did Billy Ripken have against ElRoy Face? Posted: January 28, 2013 at 03:41 PM (#4356754)

Come on, everybody knows you have to evaluate a trade according to the information the parties had at the time, not by what happened subsequently.

28. BDC

Posted: January 28, 2013 at 04:00 PM (#4356771)

I just did a Google search for my mother (dead these ten years) and discovered that the National Quilt Museum offers a scholarship named after her. I never knew that. I suppose it's better than finding out that Vinegar Bend Mizell swapped my dad a wife for her.

29. RB in NYC (Now Semi-Retired from BBTF) Posted: January 28, 2013 at 04:18 PM (#4356808)

Either my father is leading a double-life as a dentist in Haverford, PA or he's not the #1 Google result for that particular name.

30. and Posted: January 28, 2013 at 04:53 PM (#4356860)

I can explain their having a 16 year old:

1980 trade 7 year old for 3 year old
1986 trade 9 year old for 2 year old and 4 year old
1991 trade 7 year old for a 6 year old and a baby to be named
1992 accept a 9 week old beagle in place of baby to be named
1995 DFA 13 year old
1997 trade 12 year old for 4 year old
2000 trade 7 year old for 3 year old
...
2013 try to get 16 year old to start behaving better by discussing her naivete in the press

31. Foghorn Leghorn Posted: January 28, 2013 at 04:59 PM (#4356865)

Interesting, RB. I did that for my dad, and the coolest part was the Image search...

32. The Yankee Clapper Posted: January 28, 2013 at 05:04 PM (#4356871)

2013 try to get 16 year old to start behaving better by discussing her naivete in the press

Which is more embarrassing for a teenage girl: (1) Having a 70-year old father; or (2) Having renown wife-swappers for parents?

33. Jose is Absurdly Correct but not Helpful Posted: January 28, 2013 at 05:12 PM (#4356885)

Which is more embarrassing for a teenage girl: (1) Having a 70-year old father; or (2) Having renown wife-swappers for parents?

Gotta be #2. As weird as having a 70 year old father probably feels to that girl it's just normal weird. Having parents as wife-swappers opens up issues regarding the parents that teenagers typically don't want to think about.

34. cercopithecus aethiops Posted: January 28, 2013 at 05:13 PM (#4356886)

I suppose it's better than finding out that Vinegar Bend Mizell swapped my dad a wife for her.

I think that was shooty's mom.

35. snapper (history's 42nd greatest monster) Posted: January 28, 2013 at 05:16 PM (#4356891)

With Fritz and Susanne having lasted this long, this is just an ordinary divorce story. Mike and Marilyn might have been talked into the swap or just misread their attraction to each other. The swap and that these were New York Yankees pitchers give this story traction.

Ummm, if you're just getting normal divorces, you typically don't try to convince the two spurned spouse to hook up. This is quite a bit weirder than normal infidelity leads to divorce.

36. and Posted: January 28, 2013 at 05:35 PM (#4356909)

To a 16 year old, 40 = 70. If you have a 16 year old daughter, she thinks you're ancient. If you're 70, she may notice you seem older than her friends' dads but she will probably just think that is because you're much more lame than they are, not that you're actually physically older.

37. dlf Posted: January 28, 2013 at 06:33 PM (#4356945)

To a 16 year old, 40 = 70. If you have a 16 year old daughter, she thinks you're ancient. If you're 70, she may notice you seem older than her friends' dads but she will probably just think that is because you're much more lame than they are, not that you're actually physically older.

Let's see ... I'm 45, my daughter is 16, my father is 71 and my half-sister is 11 ... I'm sure that while my daughter thinks I'm ancient, she doesn't see me as being as old as my half-sister sees our dad. In the GoT threads someone commented that popular culture seems to now be focused on what my generation loved in the 80s; at a birthday slumber party this weekend, my daughter and her friends were doing Journey karaoke. They knew that was from my childhood. But for my half-sister, the similar cultural icon would have had to be who, Jerry Lee Lewis or Chuck Berry?

38. cercopithecus aethiops Posted: January 28, 2013 at 06:42 PM (#4356950)

Let's see ... I'm 45, my daughter is 16, my father is 71 and my half-sister is 11 ...

He's my sister. (SLAP) She's my daughter. (SLAP) My sister. (SLAP) My...

39. phredbird

Posted: January 28, 2013 at 06:53 PM (#4356954)

Come on, everybody knows you have to evaluate a trade according to the information the parties had at the time, not by what happened subsequently.

gold.

btw, another possible scenario is that the daughter knows, the father doesn't know the daughter knows, and nobody in town knows. i mean, she could have stumbled on it because she googled her dad's athletic career by accident, then hid it from anybody she knows in town.

40. phredbird

Posted: January 28, 2013 at 07:05 PM (#4356965)

Let's see ... I'm 45, my daughter is 16, my father is 71 and my half-sister is 11 ...

the girl is your sister but your momma don't know!

isn't really germaine, just a cool song.

41. Mayor Blomberg Posted: January 28, 2013 at 07:06 PM (#4356968)

That paragraph about his daughter is no longer in the article, only cached versions.

42. Dock Ellis

Posted: January 28, 2013 at 07:12 PM (#4356973)

That's a good idea, actually. There are jerks and weirdos that would try to reach out to his unknowing daughter and spill the beans.

43. gef the talking mongoose, peppery hostile Posted: January 28, 2013 at 09:01 PM (#4357040)

I do think she's a little old to have this kept from her, but that's not my business, I don't suppose...

Would you want her to know you'd pitched for the Yankees?

Yeah ... I thought not.

44. Barnaby Jones Posted: January 28, 2013 at 10:08 PM (#4357071)

Most teens I know have no interest in even searching their own names, and surely don't care enough about their parents

As someone who once was a teenager with access to google, I find the notion that they don't google themselves to be laughable.

45. Reggie Steroid Jackson The 1st Posted: February 03, 2013 at 08:26 PM (#4361560)

Ok, with all the negativety already. No one has mentioned that Fritz currently has two hysterically funny books out right now. I got them both from Amazon. He has lots of good anecdotes in there about his Yankee days as well as his personal life. They're written in his own inimatable style without a ghost writer. I personaly thought they were insightful and funny as hell.

46. GregD Posted: February 03, 2013 at 10:20 PM (#4361754)

Ok, with all the negativety already. No one has mentioned that Fritz currently has two hysterically funny books out right now. I got them both from Amazon. He has lots of good anecdotes in there about his Yankee days as well as his personal life. They're written in his own inimatable style without a ghost writer. I personaly thought they were insightful and funny as hell.

Thanks for coming by, Fritz! Glad you joined.

47. McCoy Posted: February 03, 2013 at 10:41 PM (#4361815)

We were all 16 once and I don't know about you but I sure as hell could tell the difference between my parents, aunts, and uncles and my grandparents. 40 was old but it wasn't as old as 70 and everybody my age knew it.

48. Jay Z Posted: February 04, 2013 at 12:36 AM (#4361915)

We were all 16 once and I don't know about you but I sure as hell could tell the difference between my parents, aunts, and uncles and my grandparents. 40 was old but it wasn't as old as 70 and everybody my age knew it.

Yep. My parents were 40 when I was born. You could tell they were older, anytime there was something involving other parents. Plus there are other issues like your cousins all being older, or not having living grandparents.

49. base ball chick Posted: February 04, 2013 at 12:56 PM (#4362270)

some of my kids classmates have parents they can't tell whether it is parents or grandparents because some people have kidz when they are 40+ so i have seen parents from youngern me which is pretty young, to old/oldern my own parents

youneverknow

because 50+ parents look like grandparents to kidz

50. Gaelan Posted: February 04, 2013 at 02:42 PM (#4362464)

There is some solid comedy in this thread.

You must be Registered and Logged In to post comments.

<< Back to main

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Ex-Yankee Fritz Peterson has no regrets 40 years after wife swap

Reader Comments and Retorts

BBTF Partner

Support BBTF

Hot Topics