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Anxiety and self-doubt usually make me fearful of responding to tweets, but when my future co-worker/friend Jared Carrabis tweeted this, I had to give my two cents.
For obvious reasons, you could mention the 2004 Red Sox or 2016 Cubs, but I am not an obvious boi. I like to be creative and think outside the box. When I saw this tweet, I immediately thought of the story where two Yankee pitchers traded FAMILIES in the 70s. Talk about re-inventing the "key party." These southpaws showed up at someone's house and never left (well, as you'll soon learn, one did).
I heard the story years ago and have read a little about it, but I didn't remember their names at first; upon further research (Wikipedia), I came across the story of Mike Kekich and Fritz Peterson.
Baseball is a funny game full of colorful characters, but I cannot think of a more out-there story involving big leaguers than the "live swap" of Kekich and Peterson. These fellas were generations ahead of their time.
Apparently, both couples were close, and after a party, they decided to drive to a diner with the other's spouse, but one new duo didn't show up for two and a half hours, which led to this husband-trade.
By the time the 1973 season began, both pitchers broke the news in separate press conferences due to more and more people knowing their arrangement. You have to control the narrative before it controls you. It was NOT a sex thing! In his press conference, Kekcih said, "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." You can read the entire 1973 New York Daily News article about Kekich and Peterson HERE, but they weren't lying about it being a live swap. These dudes swapped, wives, children, houses---even dogs. I think/know for a fact that my parent's divorce fucked me up, but I can't even begin to imagine how this affected the kids. To me, that's the craziest part of the entire story. I need to know like Marc Anthony how they've handled it. In fact, I need to know A LOT about this. Who broke the ice and officially put this offer on the table? Did they still have relationships with their biological children or was it a clean break? Did the dogs notice? I could go on forever baby. It's such a fascinating story that got a fair share of coverage in 1973, but nearly 50 years later, the details behind this trade need to be told to the masses.
Unfortunately, by the time the news broke, Mike Kekich and Marlyn Peterson were no longer together, but Fritz Peterson and Susanne Kekich are still married to this day, and that's kind of beautiful. Sadly, Mike and Susanne had to end for Fritz and Susanne to thrive, but love is love, and the heart wants what it wants, blah, blah, blah. In my eyes, it's a happy story. Matt Damon and Ben Affleck allegedly tried to get the ball rolling on a feature film about Kekich and Peterson back in 2011, but understandably, Kekich wasn't too thrilled and threatened to sue. (Fritz Peterson was fully corporative.) I'm not rooting for Mike Kekich to die; I'm just saying when he does, he can't sue anybody, and maybe this story can get the green light. If it weren't for #DozVsTheDozen XXX, I'd dive way deeper into this topic, but I've gotta go put on a show! I'll end with this: society has been through enough; we deserve to see this story on the big screen. For the record, Mike Kekich is 76 years old. Tick, tock.
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