The Charitable Work of Vera and Roberto Clemente

When the baseball humanitarian perished, his wife carried on in his name.

by Rich Watson

Roberto Clemente was not only a superstar player for the Pirates, but for Latin American fans in general. The Puerto Rican right fielder won a National League MVP award, four batting titles, twelve Gold Gloves and two World Series rings over an eighteen-year career.

In 1964, he met banker Vera Zabala in San Juan. It was love at first sight. He was eager to know her because he was dogged by a premonition that he would die young. He wished to start a family soon and do whatever his god required from him.

She wasn’t interested in him at first, but his persistence wore away at her defenses and they married in November. They would remain together only a short time, though, because his premonition turned out to be correct.

How and Why Two Yankee Pitchers Once Swapped Wives

They were all really close—maybe a bit too much in the end.

by Rich Watson

Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich were Yankee pitchers in the late sixties and early seventies. The former had his best year in 1970, when he went 20-11 with a 2.90 earned run average. The latter was less distinguished; he had back-to-back ten-win seasons in 1971-72, with his lowest ERA, 3.70, in 1972.

They, along with their respective wives, Marilyn Peterson and Susanne Kekich, were close friends. In 1972, they went to a party, and afterwards, they acted upon an idea they had only discussed in jest: they traded spouses and went home together, Marilyn with Mike and Susanne with Fritz.

They liked it enough to do it more often. Eventually they moved in with each other and made the swaps permanent. They swapped each other’s children and even their dogs. All four spouses thought the whole thing perfectly natural.

Then Major League Baseball found out.

Excuses Interfere with Romance in “Alibi Ike,” Starring Baseball Fan Joe E. Brown

One of three baseball movies by this lifelong sports fan was also the debut of a future Hollywood legend.

by Rich Watson

If Joe E. Brown is remembered by modern movie audiences, it’s for his scene-stealing turn in Some Like it Hot, the gender-bending comedy with Marilyn Monroe in which Brown seduces Jack Lemmon in drag. It’s Brown who utters that film’s famous last line, “Well, nobody’s perfect!”

Long before that career-redefining role, Brown was a headlining actor in a number of comedies from the thirties, in particular baseball films. One of those was a romantic comedy co-starring a young woman taking the first step on a long journey to superstardom: Olivia de Havilland.