Not surprisingly, the New York Mets have asked for and been granted an extension to respond to the the sexual discrimination lawsuit that was filed by fired Senior VP of Ticket Sales Leigh Castergine.
The extension filed by attorneys for the Mets now gives them until October 31 to respond to the federally filed complaint, according to Eric Fisher.
Apparently it’s going to require some additional time to say, “I didn’t do any of those things.”
Attorneys for Ms. Castergine filed a lawsuit last week in Brooklyn Federal Court against the New York Mets.
Castergine claims she was fired by the team because COO Jeff Wilpon objected to her becoming pregnant and single.
Additionally, the filing stated:
- “He frequently humiliated Castergine in front of others by, among other things, pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger and openly stating in a meeting of the Team’s all-male senior executives that he is ‘morally opposed’ to Castergine ‘having this baby without being married,’” the suit states.
- “Wilpon told her that, when she gets a ring, she will make more money and get a bigger bonus,” the suit states.
- Wilpon told Castergine that “something had changed” in Castergine after the birth of her child — “with still no ring on her finger,” the suit states. “Wilpon told her that she was no longer as ‘aggressive” as she used to be.”
- When the first female senior vice president in the team’s 52-year history complained about Wilpon’s behavior to the team’s human resources department, she was abruptly terminated, according to the suit.
- “In particular, the Team’s front office has failed to field a winning team in six years, including 2014, and has made a series of public relations blunders that too frequently led to the franchise being ridiculed in the sports pages,” the suit states.
- “The team’s ownership and front office have only made things worse,” the suit states, noting that the Mets alienated their fan base by denying obvious financial difficulties while failing to sign big-name stars.
- “Some fans had become so disenchanted that they pledged not to attend any games until there was a change in ownership,” the suit states. “Others compared Castergine’s job to selling ‘deck chairs on the Titanic’ or ‘tickets to a funeral.’”
You can read the full complaint here.
I'd like to hear MLB commissioner Rob Manfred's thoughts on allegations against Jeff Wilpon. How about an investigation? Whaddaya say, Rob?
— Metsmerized – Joe D (@MetsmerizedJoeD) September 10, 2014
On Tuesday, outgoing commissioner Bud Selig stopped by Citi Field as part of his farewell tour and dodged questions about the matter.
I know Selig will never do it, but I continue to call for new commissioner Rob Manfred to launch an independent investigation while fuly cooperating with federal authorities to get to the bottom of these allegations. A real commissioner would have already done this and even secured affidavits from all those who were present at many of these meetings where the allegations took place.
MMO will continue to update this story as further details come in.
