Thursday, January 21, 2010

19 To Go


Nineteen days of work to go got me thinking about Johnny Unitas. Thank God, I was only 5 years old when Unitas broke my father's heart by beating the Giants in the 1959 NFL Championship.

Nineteen also got me thinking about Fritz Peterson, a durable New York Yankee pitcher who wore 19 and was involved in the most unusual sports trade of all time. Peterson and his Yankee teammate Mike Kekich traded families. They did a wife swap and threw the kids in to complete the deal. You can look it up ~ 1973.
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This trade dominated neighborhood stoop banter that entire year into the next winter. It was a perfect male teenage merge of baseball statistics and sex. The possibilities were boundless. We yapped about it so much I remember Peterson's wife, Marilyn's nickname was "Chip" and that her favorite ballplayer was Al Kaline. I lost sleep over Susanne Kekich.

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