Yankee's Wife Swap: Curveballs Off the Diamond

On March fifth, nineteen seventy three, New York Yankees pitchers Fitz Peterson and Mike Kakik made an announcement to the world that they had made a trade. Both New York Yankees have traded their wives. Here's the story behind this crazy moment in baseball today on Daily Sports History. Welcome to Daily Sports History. I'm Ethan Reese, your guide to a rapid deep dive into sports history every day now. The New York Yankees had always been seen as class ever since their heyday back with Babe Bruce Luke Garrett. They had always been at the pinnacle of baseball, But in nineteen seventy three, there was something else going on. So Fritz Peterson was how they thought of in the baseball community. He was an All Star in nineteen seventy and had finished the previous season with seventeen wins pitching for the Yankees. Kaki was more of a journeyman who had joined the Yankees and finished the year before with a ten and thirteen record, not exactly impressive, but a playable asset, and both men actually lived close to each other in the state of New Jersey and frequently got together ever since. They became teammates in nineteen sixty nine, and both men it said it was just something that happened. They started to spend more time together, and Fritz became in love with Mike's wife, Susan, and his wife was in love with Mike, and by the end of the year in nineteen seventy two, they had finally made plans where both men packed up their belongings and switched lives completely, moving into each other's houses. And Suzanne and Mike had two daughters, and Fritz and Maryland had two sons, and they wanted to keep their life as normal as possible, so keeping the house and the mom where they were and switching the dads. I know, I know, this sounds like a Hollywood sitcom or a movie, and actually it almost became one. Matt Damien and Ben Affleck were actually putting together scripts for this movie, but the families wouldn't sign off on it, as it would be very hard to believe they could do it with class, and they wouldn't want their names spread through the mud as much as it had already been. Now both MAINI say this just something that happened. It wasn't something planned. It wasn't. It was something that just they fell in love with each other and their marriages were on the rocks. And at the time, divorce was still a little taboo. In the nineteen seventies, it had grown, but this was the beginning of the nineteen seventies. Divorce rates in the sixties was that twenty four percent, and it jumped to forty percent in the seventies and eventually got to fifty percent in the eighties. But this was still a taboo, and with them both being Yankees and the limelight, it's still something they didn't want to have happened. And as more and more people started to become aware of the situation that they had switched lives and switched wives and houses and families, they wanted to get the situation clear and they told their GM and manager about what was going on, and they asked not to be traded in order to keep closer to their families and so they could still support them and be part of their lives. Neither the manager or team had any problems with this new setup, and the GM Lee MacPhail, made a joke the press conference and saying maybe they'll have to cancel family Day, but otherwise, they seem unfazed, and they backed up the players during the press conference, saying they lived their own lives and whatever makes them happy is what's important, and for the kids to stack, we're going to do what we can to keep them together. Even though everything seemed happy at the moment, things do begin to become rocky. As Fritz and Suzanne were very happy, Mike and Maryland were not the same. They realized maybe they had made a mistake. After the relationship ended with Mike and Maryland, Mike moved on and pitched with the Indians, Rangers, and Mariners before retiring in nineteen seventy seven, finishing his career with a thirty nine and fifty one career record in a four point five to nine era. Nothing to write home about, but it had a solid career that lasted over twelve years. Fritz would also go on to finish career with the Rangers in nineteen seventy six, finishing with the career having a win loss record of one hundred and thirty three to one hundred and thirty one with an ERA of three point three. A good pitcher for his time, but nothing to note. But Fritz and Suzannes are still together to this day. Unfortunately, Mike and Marlyn couldn't find things happy and broke things off, and Mike still holed to grudge to Fritz over what all happened and how could you not he essentially stole his wife. But sometimes it's about being happy and maybe it would have been just better for them to get a divorce instead of having this whole thing drug through the news and everyone talk about their lives as if it was a movie that they didn't want to see. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. If you like this, please join our communities on our socials. We're on Daily Sports History at Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok YouTube. We'd love for you to join there. You can see a little clips from each episode that we're gonna do, and we loved for you to come back tomorrow for more Daily Sports History