04/23/24
February 26, 2011
Infamous Baseball Wife Swap May Become Film: In 1973, New York Yankees pitchers Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson showed up at spring training and announced that they had swapped wives. Peterson acquired the rights to Susanne Kekich and Kekich landed Marilyn Peterson. They also exchanged family dogs. Fritz Peterson got the better end of the deal -- he and Susanne are still married but the other couple hit waivers after four months. Ben and Casey Affleck and Matt Damon are working on a movie about the deal. How much is Red Sox fan Ben Affleck enjoying the prospect of making the movie, which would star him and Damon as the pitchers and potentially Naomi Watts, Rachel Weisz or Rebecca Hall as the catchers? "Guys [bleep]ing each others' wives," he said, "that's those Yankees."
This story, to me, is a example of how much society has changed between then and now with regards to attention paid to athletes/celebrities. Even though Kekich and Peterson were not huge stars, this type of story today would be all over the networks, websites, blogs, newscasts, etc. Today, looking back at it barely generates a response. Can you imagine today if two Yankees players swapped wives? These days, A-Rod getting popcorn fed to him by a actress generates a huge amount of attention.
posted by dyams at 08:41 AM on February 27, 2011
This happened to work colleagues of mine who got posted overseas together. They came back married to each other's spouses. One of them told me "better four happy people than four unhappy ones".
posted by owlhouse at 09:32 AM on February 27, 2011
The '70s were a great era for weirdness in baseball: the wife swap, Ball Four, the Astros stripes, the White Sox' shorts and Roger Moret's catatonic trance. A decade that began with Dock Ellis' LSD no-hitter ended with disco demolition night.
posted by rcade at 10:45 AM on February 27, 2011
I liked the Astros' stripes - and the A's green and yellow
posted by bobfoot at 12:11 AM on February 28, 2011
The '70s were a great era for weirdness in baseball
Great summation and drawing together of moments from the dcade by rcade.
posted by beaverboard at 07:24 AM on February 28, 2011
I always wondered if there was a player to be named later in this trade.