All Comments on 'Baseball's Most Scandalous Trade'

I like baseball. Shit, I'll leave for people who like shit.

This is just so predictable. Time after time, you write the same story, over and over again. Everybody gets it. No need to be going over the same old tired ground. Christ, just have an original thought, someday. One star.

Quit taking cheap shots at other writers that are better than you and try to write something new for a change.

Brought to you from Yankee Stadium by Swingerjoe.

I think you get a kick out of reading what your obsessed critics spout off. So, I'm sorry to say something complimentary. I find your stories to be quite different from one another, and look forward to seeing new ones for that reason. And you are a very good writer.

What set off the rabid dogs. Your stories aren't all about swinging, but what if they were. The hits and misses of swinging belong in LW more than most of the sick crap found in this category.

How do you not recognize sarcastic trolling, anon? If a short story doesn't grab you in the first five paragraphs it isn't very good. This story fails that test so that comment is an obvious troll.

But the sameness is in the first five anonymous comments, and I’ve noticed the same flavor in the comments about other SJ stories. It’s enough to make me wonder if it’s the same person utilizing different IP addresses. Always short, crude, personal attacks on SJ with suggestions he quit writing. Always with a flavor of petty vindictiveness, and never constructive. Seems like a lot of work for someone and I hope it isn’t true.

This is high level of storytelling and I think we can all recognize that, whether we like his characters or not. 5 stars and worth more. Thanks, SJ.

Thurman was Thurman Munson? He came to a bad end in a Cessna Citation he was flying. Landed short of the runway. Others got out, but he was trapped and burned.

Another good story Thanks for sharing

Sadly realistic. A swap in which everyone is happy has to be a unicorn; more likely, you end up with at least one person feeling like they've traded down and regret the whole thing, with the chance of regret growing as time goes on in a longer-term swap like this.

The logistics of this story confused me, though, particularly the move to California. They both play for the Yankees, so I'd expect them both to live in NY/NJ, and the talk of the families being close for multiple years implies to me that they've lived in relative proximity for a while. So, why is one wife suddenly being shipped off to California?

I'd think that that alone would have been a huge strain on the relationship, dumping someone far away from everyone they know, and it's not really surprising that the wife who was sent across the country and was faced with essentially being a single mother for most of the year, was the one that wanted to throw in the towel.

It also felt a bit off how quickly the guys gave up on their kids. I mean, I guess Mike had the better end of things here, since his kids living in New Jersey would mean he could visit them occasionally and maintain a relationship, but Fritz's former wife and kids moving away was basically severing all ties to his former life.

The impact of moving to California seems kind of foreseeable, though, so I'd think that any kind of swap like this would involve Mike selling his home there and settling down locally. Of course, I guess if you did that, you wouldn't have the hard separation that the story really needed. Without some sort of justification for that, however, it just comes across as forced to me.

If, for example, there were a few lines about Mike being stubborn and refusing to permanently move to the New York area, that would justify things a bit, as well as make him more obviously the architect of his own destruction.

The story is "sadly" realistic because it all happened in real life.

Some of you really need to get a grip and get out of mom's basement. There's a whole new world out there since the 70s.

Keep doing your thing Joe. Cut their useless balls off and delete the closed minded bully comments.

it took me a minute to get a handle on who was supposed to be with whom, but once that was out of the way this was an excellent story. This is the second(?) time you have taken true events and wielded a story from it.

I think this is your niche.

This is your brand of originality. Very few authors have even thought about doing this. It makes the story feel much more complete. If you remember that surface stuff of what really happened, it can make you get more lost in the story. The fact that it could possibly be real (maybe) adds complexity to the characters.

I enjoyed it. Thank you for this.

The last sentence made this a five.

Fell asleep stoped reading

I know there are some that did not like this story but I really did and the last line was a killer. 5* for me

This reads like the outline of a story that could have been epic. "I have some of the facts, but I'm missing the human element." That's exactly what I feel like. Does Fritz feel any type of guilt? Does Susanne? How about their relationships with their children? How did Mike get over his loss? What happens to Marilyn? So many things just glossed over. Could have been a great story...

some of Literotica's best writers are joining forces to post a chain story. I just hope that Joe is included in the list of writers, if the rumor is true, as well any future invitational. Few writers make Joe's perceptive observations of married life, fidelity, and a husband's responses to them. Literotica needs more writers like Joe and fewer self serving, self centered, untalented hacks, whom I will not name. Thanks for the story, Joe. Full marks from me!

At the risk of "calling attention to myself"...

First, thank you to those who commented. (Even the angry anonies.) Your comments are the only payment I receive here.

To the anon who was complimentary, thank you. I appreciate your kind words. I'm sure I will write again about swinging someday. There is still more material to mine there, I think. The last thing I want to do, however, is become a one-trick writing pony.

To the anon who followed up on that comment, thanks for the laugh. Yes, I often compliment myself anonymously. Sometimes I walk past a mirror, point at my reflection, wink, and say, "Looking sharp, big guy!" Just FYI, I didn't "brag" about how many votes my last story got. That would be silly and pointless. I mentioned it because it's evidence of blatantly obvious manipulation. Anyone who has ever written here, and who understands basic math, knows what I meant by it. I wasn't bragging; I was laughing at the sadness of the person (or people?) who wasted so much time for such a pointless cause.

To tennesseered, people from the generation before mine remember where they were and what they were doing when JFK was shot. I will never forget where I was when my favorite player's plane went down.

To the "cooks the books" anony, thank you for the biggest belly laugh I've had in quite some time! Yes, I "cook the books" so well that I give my stories scores below 3.0 and leave myself insulting anonymous comments! Hilarious!

To Valint, Mike and Susanne Kekich lived in California. When Mike was traded to the Yankees, they purchased a summer home in New Jersey. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

To Javmor, thanks as always for your support and encouragement. I do find it easier to write about true-life events, because, frankly, I have a shitty imagination. I'm always on the lookout for some real-life story that will serve as my next muse.

To the "board" anony, I'm sorry that you became a plank of wood by reading my story.

To ephesios, you have a fair point. I wavered between showing too much detail and too little. As it was, I felt as though the story was becoming too long, and I cropped out a few scenes during the editing phase. Perhaps I should have left them in. To answer your questions, the real-life Fritz maintains to this day that he feels zero guilt over The Trade. He says he and Susanne are still in the honeymoon phase. Neither Susanne nor Marilyn has issued any comment on The Trade since it happened. (At least, none that I could find.) Fritz and Susanne went on to have two more daughters of their own to add to her two from her marriage with Mike. It's presumed that Fritz had little contact with his sons once Marilyn moved to Illinois. As I wrote in the story, she became a schoolteacher, eventually remarried, and moved on with her life. Mike's post-Trade life was most interesting to me, so that's why I told the end of the story from his perspective.

# 1

Awkwardly executed. ***

"Stupid and unbelievable." Stupid, maybe but believe it because it actually happened.

Also for Valent, most professional athletes do not maintain their homes in the cities they play in, mostly because that can change anytime due to trades or releases, especially in baseball where players can go back and forth between the Show and their minor league affiliates multiple times during the season. Mike Kelich is from Southen Cal and started his career with the Dodgers.

The facts of the story are accurate. I've always been fascinated by this story and as a young baseball fan I remember when it happened. There was even mention of it on the back of my Fritz Peterson baseball card. I had to have my parents reassure me that they and our neighbors were not going to do the same thing.

Not knowing exactly what was in each of their minds, SJ did a good job of filling in what likely those thoughts could have been. Bottom line is that Fritz and Suzanne lived happily ever after however he never really re-established a relationship with his sons. Kekich and Marilyn never made it work.He is remarried and living in Albuquerque. Maury Allen wrote about it in a book and there was some talk about making it into a movie.

Excellent writing so 5*

Nice story. Life is that way. It's all about choices and where those choices lead us. Sadly in life there are no reruns. I liked the story. Fritz wasn't really happy with Marilyn, and Mike was unable to find happiness with her either. I guess too dominant personality, too controlling. I felt sorry for Mike, but I guess at the end he found happiness in life too. It's said, 50% of first marriages end in divorce court. Are we that different from the older generations, less committed, or marriages are not the best union for couples any longer? Time will say...

I remember when this happened. As an Indians fan, I remember when Kekich was traded here.

Javmor and SJ blowing each other on their stories. Get a room, you two, over in gay.

What can I say? Another ‘Homerun’ by the slugger, but then honest readers can expect no less. Even if we may disagree with the plot or some other aspect of your stories—even if some hate you for the same reason some hate President Trump—many humans hate others who outperform them, thinking that person makes them look bad, (In both cases here that’s often true.) only a biased person could legitimately fault your writing. You bring a talent to the playing field unmatched by most of your peers.

You and the now unavailable alwayswantedto have long been the standard which I tried to reach, but let me hasten to admit that along the way I’ve studied many other fine writers here on LIT. This is not to say I’ve tried to emulate any of you, but instead I’ve tried to pick up some of the better points.

Heck, I’ve even learned things from the commenters. Just today I learned it’s possible to eliminate scores you don’t like. I know how to block idiotic comments made by Anons but I wish that commenter would tell me how to get rid of low scores. (I still think this site would be well served by following the lead of some others that require membership to comment or vote, but that’s just me.)

BTW, don’t you just love it? We have a reader you turned into a ‘board’ who ‘stoped’ reading. You can’t make this crap up! I hope he did like I’ve done on occasion and hit the submit button when he wanted to hit edit.

Just to see if the Trolls knew what they were talking about, I once tried to vote and comment on one of my stories. I could do neither. Since I know an anonymous reader wouldn’t post a bunch of crap, please tell me how you are so successful at that trick.

Keep swinging for the fences! cd

Damn it Joe! Another good story from you. If I'm not careful, you're going to become one of my favorite authors. Seriously, a good take on a story all Yankee fans are familiar with. My Dad says he cried when Thurmon died too. I suffered many hard days behind the plate as a young player, all because of Munson. Thanks for a good effort.

Seeing this story get lower scores than drivel like Hot Wife Lisa,and other poorly written crap is ludicrous. This is a good story by any measure. I doubt most of the down voters actually read it. They just see Swinger Joe as the author and their dilike of you decides the score. That said, some of you comments, such as on Javmor's story, are a little off kilter. I think you like to be hated. You wear it as a badge of honor. Too bad it detracts from your very obvious talent. Try writing under a different name and check your scores.

Check RLMann stories. It's our friend SJ conducting the experiment of which you speak.

Lue

of a true life tale. I am curious how you got the details of the story from 1973 on, not much is available on a google search after that. Great job and full marks.

I didn't want to comment on this story, not because I thought it was bad or good but because I had put a ban on making a ruckus over the last story I wrote. Joe's story is as every bit a 5 as anything out there. It saddens me to see him (at this writing) with only a 3.08. I wish the readers of this site would start reading for enjoyment instead of trying to under cut each other. Some of my favorite writers never comment on other stories much less their own.

Joe you keep on writing and I'll keep on reading, wither I like the subject or not.

Thanks for your comments. I’m glad to know I’m winning you over (to some extent.)

Re. the votes, there is one (or possibly more than one) very dedicated “fan” of mine who has gone through the time-consuming trouble of voting 50+ times on this story to suppress the score as much as possible. Not only this story, but the last one. I can tell by the suspicious number of votes both stories have collected. It’s so blatantly obvious that I began watching the vote totals throughout the day, just out of morbid curiosity.

Not only that, but this person or people went to the trouble of down-voting EVERY ONE of my other stories over the past few days. I recently noted that I had about a dozen stories that were scored 4.48 or 4.49 (as this particular troll goes to the trouble of ensuring my stories never reach 4.5), and now those stories are all in the 4.6-4.7 range. It seems unlikely that so many people read so many of my older stories recently.

The saddest part is that they do all of this (which must require them to switch IP’s dozens, if not hundreds, of times) for no reason. I don’t care about the scores. I never have. I don’t write for the scores. I don’t write for the accolades. I certainly don’t write for the fame or fortune. I write because I enjoy writing. I share my writing here because every once in a while I’ll get a comment like yours. So thanks for that.

I remember when that story broke but I really paid no attention to it. A few years after "The Trade" my roomate & I were watching the Yanks on tv, Thurmon at bat, I think the count was 2-2 when almost simultaneously I shouted out "C'mon Thurm!" & my roomate shouted out "C'mon Muns!"

I was decidedly less then happy when Thurman went down in that plane crash.

I never followed up on Fritz & Mike so this is an interesting perspective.

ltpw

Perhaps in your view, but I took the liberty to check on the top 250 stories written in loving wives. Strange I didn't see one of the best writers on this sites name listed. qhml1 seemed to dominate the list, along with dtiverson,Rehnquist,SWMHermit,FrnacesMacomber,oshaw, coaster2,DanielleQSteele, just to name a few of the top writers. One thing these writers have in common, they don't attack the readers who don't favor their stories. Need I say more?

Out of the park Dawg! Power Alley, still rising when it cleared the wall. Line screamer.

I remember thinking, "what a bunch of east coast collegiate schit" when it happened.

Great job of showing the emotions, and the price he paid.

In retro, this was a lot more honest and legit than sneaking around. Don't say much for the two that stayed married that they reneged on the safe word.

"Literotica needs more writers like Joe and fewer self serving, self centered, untalented hacks, whom I will not name." - Please excuse me while I laugh at the unintended irony. Joe is probably the most "self serving, self centered," I WON'T say "untalented" because he DOES have talent, out there.

Frankly, if he would stick to writing, maybe, as someone has said under a new ID without his baggage, we would all be better off.

Since you're already hiding among the vast heard of anonymice, why don't you show the "courage" of your convictions and name the writers that you deride? Is it because you're afraid to show everyone the limits of your evaluation skills?

Aww, thanks for the backhanded compliment, buddy. I’ve already proven that I can earn the love and praise and high scores of the LW crowd under a different moniker. Frankly, it takes very little talent and effort to do so. If that were my purpose for writing, I would never write under the “swingerjoe” name ever again. Obviously, that’s not why I’m here. It’s far more challenging to earn a grudging compliment from this crowd. I always enjoy a challenge.

No, I'm not talking about writing your pandering stories.

I'm talking about writing your own stories, the way you want to write them.

If you enjoy the challenge of trying to extract grudging praise, go for it, but it seems a little masochistic to me.

I don’t write to extract praise of any kind, SB. I write because I enjoy writing, and I write the stories that I would enjoy reading. I share my writing here because of the occasional entertaining feedback (good and bad.) Frankiy, I find it sad when I see talented writers pander to an audience. Yet, when I call them out for doing so, that somehow makes ME the bad guy!

I tried writing for another site, and it wasn’t nearly as much fun.

Did you enjoy this story? As a Sox fan, at the very least, you must enjoy how this episode in Yankees history tarnished the franchise’s reputation.

Not the story, that was as dull as a forty year old newspaper article. The last few comments.

The only interesting thing is the rumor of a chain stories by great authors and an invitational. Those are interesting, and I can't wait. Joe's invitation? That will be a vacation day in hell, I imagine, with the freezers running full blast.

The story was almost depressing as hell but I really liked the last line and how it wrapped it up.

And for that I thank you.

5*

I'm always puzzled by the question "do you want to sleep with him/her" as I think the last thing on their minds is sleep.

This is a rather sad tale of a decision to swap that went wrong when one participant wouldn't keep to the prearranged agreement to revert back. The moral is be careful of one wishes for as it can come back and bite you.

What a great throw in to a cool rendering. I was 10 and a die hard Yankee hater when this story broke. Only 2 days in my life did I ever not despise the Bombers. The 1st when Munson died and the other after 9/11. But remembering the characters of early Zoo still make me wax nostalgic. Bouton on Carson was another cool addition. Ball Four remains a great read. Bowie Kuhn was one of MLBs better commissioners but not for the owners. I love when authors take a swing at history and incorporate facts into stories. Thanks for the read. Go Dodgers.

I read up on the 70s Yankee teams, and Peterson and Kekich, as it was before.my time. Joe really did do a great job with this story, pretty much the way it must have been in reality. Just a very solid job. I have become a real fan of SJ's writing. His comments.on other's work, still not so much.

Story similar story to this one, then look up Anna Benson. That chick is just plain crazy. There’s all kinds of stuff that you could use to write another story about even if you don’t make it a story about her life like you did here with this story.

I recall most of the events of your story, and commend you on making it as vivid as you have. Well done, very well done 5 starts (pun intended)

Read again. SJ really did a great job with this sports wife swapping story. Just the facts.

"New York Yankees Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich held separate press conferences during the 1973 spring training season"