Fritz Peterson was the #2 starter for the Yankees in the late 60’s and early 70’s — combining good pitching, good looks, and a charismatic personality to become one of the core Yankees of that era.
Peterson Was Charismatic Yankee Hero
Peterson came up through the Yankee system and went 12-11 3.31 as a rookie in 1966, followed by good performances throughout the late 1960’s including a 17-16 2.55 in 1969.
Peterson had his best year in 1970 — going 20-11 2.90 to cement his standing as the Yanks’ #2 starter behind Mel Stottlemyre, and ahead of #3 starter Stan Bahnsen and other starters Steve Kline and Mike Kekich.
Fritz was known as a well-liked teammate and practical joker — he once used fake Baseball Hall of Fame letterhead to ask Moose Skowron (aka Bill Skowron) to donate his pacemaker after he died, and used fake Yankees letterhead to ask Clete Boyer to participate in an “official drinking contest” against Don Larsen and Graig Nettles.
Peterson & Kekich Traded Wives & Families
Stottlemyer, Peterson, Bahnsen, Kline, and Kekich formed the Yanks’ starting staff throughout the early 70’s — until Fritz Peterson and Kekich famously or infamously announced they had traded wives and families (including their dogs) in Spring of 1973.
Kekich — who had gone 10-13 3.70 in 1972 — was soon traded — on June 12, 1973 — to Cleveland for Lowell Palmer. Peterson would remain the Yanks’ #2 starter until early 1974, when on April 26th he was traded to Cleveland along with Steve Kline and Fred Beene for Chris Chambliss, Dick Tidrow, and Cecil Upshaw. The trade devastated many Yankee fans at the time — but ended up being one of the best trades GM Gabe Paul ever made — creating the beginning of the foundation of Yankee championships to come.
By that time Kekich was gone from Cleveland — having blown out his arm going 1-4 7.00 for them in 1973. He had comebacks as a reliever with Texas in 1975 and reliever/spot starter with Seattle in 1977 (5-4 5.60) and retired at age 32.
Peterson meanwhile went 9-14 4.36 with Cleveland in 1974 and 14-8 3.94 for them in 1975 before being traded to Texas early in 1976 and blowing out his shoulder there. He tried a comeback with the White Sox in 1977 but didn’t make the majors and hung it up at age 34.
Off the field, Kekich and Fritz Peterson‘s former wife Marilyn broke up after about a year, while Peterson and Kekich’s wife, Susanne, later married and remained together until Peterson’s death in 2024.
Peterson’s Big Comeback — Books & Website
Which brings us to the point of this article — Fritz Peterson’s second comeback — that into the public eye 35 years later with the publication of his book in 2009, Mickey Mantle Is Going to Heaven — an inside look at his career in the clubhouse with teammates from Mickey Mantle to Bobby Murcer.
He followed that up with his 2nd book in 2014, The Art of De-Conditioning: Eating Your Way to Heaven.
Next came his 3rd book, “When the Yankees Were on the Fritz: Revisiting the Horace Clarke Era“, published as an ebook in August 2014 and published to hardcopy in March 2015. As its title suggests, it focuses on the early 70’s Horace Clarke era.
Along with his 3rd book came a phenomenal website — www.fritzpeterson.org — which went live in May, 2015.
Peterson Sold the Book Outside Yankee Stadium
Fritz would make public appearances outside Yankee Stadium selling the book and signing autographs in 2015 and 2016 — across the street by The Yankee Tavern (72 East 161st Street) and sometimes at the Hard Rock Cafe (Gate 6).
This was an amazing time in retrospect. My longtime friend John Letizia — who grew up a huge Fritz Peterson fan — purchased a book for me and had it signed by Fritz. An amazing gift.
The Website — And It’s Use of Topps Baseball Cards
And then there was the website — where Fritz would write regular posts about his old teammates and buddies — giving you an inside look into the baseball world.
But beyond all of that — what made Fritz’s website even more special was his use of baseball cards for a player’s picture. Simple but ingenious method for bringing the site to life.
Here is an example post — using Pete Ward‘s 1971 Topps card:
The Website Resurrected After Peterson’s Passing
Peterson announced in 2018 he had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, and he died in 2023 from lung cancer. The website went missing for a while — and the only place you could find it was on the Wayback Machine — such as here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20160924162120/https://fritzpeterson.org/
But the Peterson family recently put the website back up as a WordPress site — it is here:
https://fritzpetersondotorg.wordpress.com/
It is a fun, fun read and the baseball cards are all there.
A couple of other example posts — again an amazing use of baseball cards for the picture — in this case Norm Siebern‘s 1959 Topps card. Go to the official Fritz Peterson site for all of them:
Another — pulling Joe Lis‘s 1975 card out — those amazing Topps 1975 two-tone colored cards (people either hated the design or loved it — mostly hated it):
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