Linked media – Connected media
But none of Peterson’s on-field achievements or off-field eccentricities proved to be as memorable as the disclosure, in March 1973, that he and another Yankee pitcher, Mike Kekich, were living in each other’s house with each other’s wife and children. As a headline in The Daily News declared, “2 Yank Pitchers Trade Wives: Peterson, Kekich Hurl Change-Ups.”
The two men, who each had two young children, had known each other since 1969, after Kekich was traded to the Yankees by the Los Angeles Dodgers. They had become close friends, had gotten to know each other’s wives, and by the summer of 1972 were discussing the evident fact that Peterson and Susanne Kekich had fallen in love, as had Kekich and Marilyn Peterson.
Their solution was for the men to switch not just wives but families, with the Kekiches’ daughters, Kristen, 5, and Reagan, 2, joining their mother at Petersons’ house, and the Petersons’ sons, Gregg, 5, and Eric, 2, moving in with Kekich. In interviews at the time, the couples both said that the so-called scandal was hardly scandalous. “It wasn’t a wife swap,” Kekich said. “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.”
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