Fritz Peterson, Yankee Pitcher in an Unusual ‘Trade,’ Dies at 82

Fritz Peterson, who was a stalwart pitcher for the ineffectual Yankees of the late Nineteen Sixties and early ’70s, however whose lingering renown derived extra from considered one of baseball’s most infamous “trades” — his change of wives with a teammate — has died. He was 82.

His dying was introduced on Friday by Northern Illinois University, his alma mater, and the Yankees. Neither announcement stated when or the place he died or cited a trigger.

Peterson had beforehand battled prostate most cancers, and in 2018 he disclosed in an interview with The New York Post and in a Facebook publish that he had Alzheimer’s illness.

Peterson had the misfortune of becoming a member of the Yankees in 1966, when the staff completed final in a 10-team American League, close to the beginning of one of many extra depressing stretches in staff historical past. Over his eight full seasons in New York, the Yankees by no means completed increased than second and managed to win greater than they misplaced simply 4 occasions. Mickey Mantle, the final vestige of sustained Yankee glory, retired; attendance within the Bronx slid to its lowest since World War II, simply earlier than George Steinbrenner and different traders purchased the staff from CBS, which bought it at a loss, for $10 million, primarily a pittance.

In this gloomy period, Peterson was a number one mild. Sharing the highest of the rotation with one other unfortunate Yankee, Mel Stottlemyre (who had a minimum of gotten to pitch for the pennant-winning 1964 squad), Peterson gained 109 video games, together with 20 in 1970, when he made his solely All-Star staff, and averaged greater than 17 wins over a four-year stretch from 1969 to 1972.

A left-hander, he didn’t overpower hitters. But he modified speeds successfully, using a variation on a changeup known as a palm ball, and he had very good management. He had the fewest walks per 9 innings within the American League for 5 straight seasons. For his profession he averaged simply 1.7 walks per recreation.

He was often known as a prankster who relished the childishness that flourished within the locker room. On the street with the Yankees, he roomed for a time with Jim Bouton, the pitcher and baseball iconoclast who would later grow to be finest recognized for his memoir “Ball Four.” The guide undermined their friendship, however earlier than that they have been companions in clubhouse mischief; they as soon as loaded the hair dryer of their coiffure-sensitive, toupee-wearing teammate Joe Pepitone with talcum powder.

Peterson’s personal memoir, “Mickey Mantle Is Going to Heaven” (2009), is among the odder artifacts of baseball literature. A mix of storytelling — from the ballpark and from the meandering path of Peterson’s journey to Christian evangelism — it ends a number of chapters by speculating about which of Peterson’s former teammates would go to heaven (Mantle and Bobby Murcer) and which might not (Bouton).

But none of Peterson’s on-field achievements or off-field eccentricities proved to be as memorable because the disclosure, in March 1973, that he and one other Yankee pitcher, Mike Kekich, have been dwelling in one another’s home with one another’s spouse and kids. As a headline in The Daily News declared, “2 Yank Pitchers Trade Wives: Peterson, Kekich Hurl Change-Ups.”

The two males, who every had two younger youngsters, had recognized one another since 1969, after Kekich was traded to the Yankees by the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had grow to be shut pals, had gotten to know one another’s wives, and by the summer season of 1972 have been discussing the evident indisputable fact that Peterson and Susanne Kekich had fallen in love, as had Kekich and Marilyn Peterson.

Their resolution was for the boys to change not simply wives however households, with the Kekiches’ daughters, Kristen, 5, and Reagan, 2, becoming a member of their mom at Petersons’ home, and the Petersons’ sons, Gregg, 5, and Eric, 2, transferring in with Kekich. In interviews on the time, the {couples} each stated that the so-called scandal was hardly scandalous. “It wasn’t a wife swap,” Kekich stated. “It was a life swap. We’re not saying we’re right and everyone else who thinks we’re wrong are wrong. It’s just the way we felt.”

The relationship between Mike Kekich and Marilyn Peterson dissolved shortly after it was made public. Fritz Peterson and Susanne Kekich have been married in 1974 and remained so. She survives him. (Complete data on survivors was not instantly obtainable.)

Fritz Peterson was born Fred Ingels Peterson in Chicago on Feb. 8, 1942, the eldest of three youngsters of Fred and Annette (Ingels) Peterson. His father was a switchboard installer for the native cellphone firm; his mom oversaw the family.

The household lived for a time in Crystal Lake, Ill., northwest of Chicago, and Fred went to highschool in Arlington Heights, Ill, the place he performed hockey in addition to baseball. He attended Northern Illinois University, the place he starred as a pitcher, and earned a bachelor’s diploma in 1965, two years after signing with the Yankees and taking part in the primary of three minor league seasons.

On April 15, 1966, in his large league debut, Peterson pitched the Yankees to their first victory of the season, beating the Baltimore Orioles.

He went 12-11 in his rookie yr for a staff whose woeful report was 70-89-1. The subsequent low season, 1972-73, because the Peterson and Kekich marriages intertwined, Peterson labored as a radio commentator for the New York Raiders of the short-lived World Hockey Association. That winter, the Yankees have been purchased by Steinbrenner, a businessman who insisted that his gamers signify the staff in a clean-cut method.

Following the change of households, Kekich was traded to Cleveland in June, and Peterson was booed by followers all through 1973 earlier than being shipped, additionally to Cleveland, in April 1974.

He spent simply over two seasons there and completed his profession in 1976 with a brief stint with the Texas Rangers. His total won-lost report was 133-131, with an earned run common of three.30.

In his post-baseball profession, Peterson was an insurance coverage salesman and a blackjack supplier and wrote two different books: “The Art of De-Conditioning: Eating Your Way to Heaven,” a satire of food regimen and train regimens, and “When the Yankees Were on the ‘Fritz’: Revisiting the ‘Horace Clarke Era,’” a reference to the infielder who got here to personify the mediocre Yankee groups Peterson performed on.

It had been Peterson’s period as effectively.