The other pitcher in a more normal swap

Tom Buskey with the Yankees

Tom Buskey, then a promising young pitcher in New York, finds himself as part of a seven-player trade 51 years ago today as the most conservative Yankees finally rid themselves of Fritz Peterson, another once promising pitcher from the mid-1960s.

The trade comes a year after controversy embroils Peterson as he and then-Yankee teammate Mike Kekich swap families – wives, kids, family dogs, you name it.

Really, a true story there.

A year later – 51 years ago today to be exact – the Yankees send Buskey to Cleveland, along with Peterson and fellow pitchers Fred Beene and Steve Kline, for first baseman Chris Chambliss, and pitchers Dick Tidrow and Cecil Upshaw.

Buskey – the pride of Harrisburg, Pa. – enjoys three productive seasons in Cleveland and ends up pitching eight seasons in the majors with the Yankees, Cleveland and Toronto.

As for the Yankees’ half of the from the 1974 trade, Chambliss and Tidrow become mainstays on the Yankees’ back-to-back World Series championship teams in 1977 and ’78.