I know some of you won’t like this, but the Mets have reached a settlement in the lawsuit filed against them by former VP of ticket sales Leigh Castergine.

The team announced the settlement in a press release, and offered a joint statement from both the Mets and Castergine.

“The parties have decided to resolve this matter, which has brought more attention to the workplace environment for women in sports and will result in the organization being more attentive to the important issues raised by women in sports.”

“Additionally, we are both committed to the further development and encouragement of female executives in our industry. Both sides‎ have agreed to have no further comments.”

Settlement terms were not disclosed, but I’m sure this cost the Mets a boatload of cash.

Castergine sued the club and Jeff Wilpon last September, alleging that she was  discriminated against because she became pregnant out of wedlock, and then being fired when she reported the discrimination to the Mets human resources department.

Once again the Wilpons dodge another bullet… Sigh…

The post Mets Reach Settlement With Castergine On Discrimination Lawsuit appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

One of our readers named Matt, reached out to me last week and wrote:

I’ve been following MMO for the last two years or so, although I’ve only commented maybe once or twice. Thank you for the great content and dedication.

Anyway, the reason I am writing is because I am taking a Literature of Baseball class this term at Drexel University, and my professor is a consultant for the Mets. Tonight, at 6 pm, Sandy Alderson will be coming to speak to the class and will be open for any questions.

The class only has 15-20 students or so, and I should have plenty of time to ask him anything and everything. I was just wondering if there is anything you would like me to ask on behalf of MMO and then pass along the answers. We were told anything is fair game, but to please refrain from the ongoing Leigh Castergine lawsuit.

Having just ran a series of posts covering MMO’s John Bernhardt’s exclusive one-on-one interview with Sandy Alderson last week, there was really only one more question that never got asked that I wanted to throw at Sandy:

“There are many fans who have become frustrated with how every decision still seems to be heavily based on dollars. There are those who believe the team should be operating with a payroll that should be on par with other teams that play in large markets. My question to you Sandy is, what do you believe is an appropriate payroll range for the New York Mets and how long until they can operate at that level again?”

About three hours later, Matt responded to me with a photo he took with Sandy and the following response:

It was a great experience, he is probably as knowledgeable as anyone in baseball. Some very interesting things about the Mets, as well as Major League Baseball in general. I’ll send you another email soon with more about what he said, but as for the payroll question…

In typical Sandy Alderson fashion, he said that payroll should be so that the team at least hits a break even point. Now that the Mets are at that point, payroll increase will correlate with revenue increase which he acknowledged would only come from winning.

He also said that right now, the Mets need to continue to get a little more out of their players than what the team is paying for them – a la Lucas Duda, Jacob deGrom, and others. That would lead to more winning and give the Mets increased revenue, and thus increased payroll, and hopefully even more winning.

It was an interesting response. I never expected Sandy to give me an actual payroll range simply because the truth would probably not coincide with what his employers have in mind. But that Sandy transitioned into a player’s performance outpacing their cost to the team was interesting to hear. That is the essence of the advanced metric revolution, of course.

But there was one more thing Matt mentioned that we both probably had a good laugh about.

I don’t think you can quote him on it, but a Phillies fan took a jab at Sandy and asked him, “When are the Mets ever gonna make the playoffs again?”  Sandy replied,  “Next year.”

I can tell you that neither me or Matt took that exchange very seriously, and in fact, I wasn’t even going to mention it. But in light of yesterday’s stunning events, maybe Sandy wasn’t kidding after all… Maybe he was dead serious about making the playoffs in 2015… Anyway, I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 🙂

I want to thank Matt for reaching out to us and letting us share his experience with the MMO community.

The post MMO Exclusive: I Guess Sandy Wasn’t Kidding After All appeared first on Metsmerized Online.

Castergine is the former team executive who is suing Jeff Wilpon and Sterling Mets for gender discrimination and maintaining a hostile work environment after she was allegedly fired for having a baby out of wedlock.

The Mets have denied the allegations after being granted a six week extension to prepare their response.

Castergine’s lawyer, Ann Vladeck, also said she may amend the suit to add two more parties, but declined to elaborate according to the report.

November 1

In papers filed with the court on Friday, Jeff Wilpon and Sterling Mets finally responded to the allegations in the discrimination lawsuit brought against them by former senior vice president of marketing and ticket sales Leigh Castergine.

They denied claims that Castergine was fired because she was pregnant and unmarried.

“Wilpon at all times treated Plaintiff fairly and without regard to her gender, marital status, pregnancy or leave. She was not discriminated against in the terms and conditions of her employment. The termination of her employment was based on legitimate business reasons having nothing whatsoever to do with her gender, marital status, pregnancy or leave.”

The response cites a conflict between Castergine and a superior, Lou DePaoli. The conflict, according to the papers, began before there was knowledge of her pregnancy and said she had support from Wilpon.

In Castergine’s court filing, she alleges that the team terminated her because Jeff Wilpon objected to her becoming pregnant out of wedlock.

“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.’”

As both sides are scheduled to meet on November 7th, this was widely expected. I’m actually shocked that there wasn’t a more substantial denial.

Castergine cited several instances and meetings where many others were present. It will be interesting to see what they have to say once they are called for affidavits and testimony.

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Bud Selig sat with SNY’s Keith Hernandez, Ron Darling and Gary Cohen during the early innings of Tuesday night’s 9-1 bashing of the Miami Marlins.  They discussed issues facing not only the Mets, but baseball as a whole and the back and forth was interesting to say the least.  The crew had their take on a few topics, including length of games with the now added challenge option,  but did their best to put Selig on the edge of his seat on more challenging obstacles facing the game.

Gary brought up the most important question because it indirectly touched upon the lawsuit brought forth by former Executive VP of Ticket Sales Leigh Castergine.  As an employee of the Mets organization through SNY, Cohen is not in a position to raise the allegation of discrimination coming from COO Jeff Wilpon directly on air, but this is no ordinary group of announcers.  These men are pioneers at their positions and have a unique grasp on the pulse of the fan base.  This is of course, a fan base located in one of the most socially advanced metropolitan cities in the world.  A fan base that works and lives along side individuals of all genders, races and religious creeds, among many other identities.

Gary elaborated on the recent transgressions that have spun the NFL in a dreadful slew of disturbing allegations, cover-ups and mishandlings and posed the following question.  “What is the responsibility of the commissioner, of what you would call the public trust…to legislate that kind of thing”.  Selig’s response?  “Baseball is a social institution” to which he believes the “players” have done a great job representing.  There was, of course, no mention of the other individuals responsible for the daily operations of major league baseball like owners, front office executives, coaches, etc.

Now, I don’t expect Selig to come on SNY and indict the Chief Operating Officer of one of the very MLB teams he oversees, especially when the legal proceedings are still in progress.  However, declaring baseball an institution that prioritizes high moral standards above anything else was poorly timed, particularly given the stadium he was in.

In an interview with ESPN’s Adam Rubin that took place only hours before the commissioner brought his farewell tour to Queens, Selig took a selectively indifferent stance towards allegations that a high ranking Mets executive, Jeff Wilpon, publicly humiliated and ultimately fired a former female employee because she was having a child out of wedlock.  In his position, this is a weak stance on moral high ground.

Honestly, both Selig and the Wilpons are vastly out of touch with many of the social obligations a major sports league has to the society it brings entertainment to.  Major League Baseball can be bigger than the court of law, they can be bigger than the government and certainly bigger than the Wilpons because they are a private organization.

As his tenure comes to an end, Mr. Selig could be on the forefront of defining the moral standard within the very social institution that has been under his control for decades. Instead, he appears to be relegating such an astonishing disregard for women’s rights as “employment ligitation” adding that “there’s nothing more to talk about”.

If Ms. Castergine’s allegations are true, I sincerely hope the individuals present during Jeff’s disparaging remarks come forth and have the courage to uplift Major League Baseball to the social institution Bud Selig claims it has always been.

P.S. – Did Bud completely forget the substance abuse allegations of his current and former “players” that has demolished the reputation of baseball for years now?  It took an act of Congress just to get the wheels moving on performance enhancing drugs.  This isn’t even old news, the Biogenesis scandal was last year for goodness sake.

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Let’s clear something up right off the bat. Hitting a woman and firing someone, even if it was in a discriminatory manner, are not on equal playing fields. That being said, we’ve watched as the NFL has squirmed and wiggled around the incident surrounding former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice. They have gotten it wrong multiple times and in the end this could end up costing commissioner Roger Goodell his job.

Turning our attention to baseball, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon was sued earlier this week by Leigh Castergine. The former VP of Ticket Sales said that Wilpon fired her based largely on the fact that she was pregnant and not married. Obviously these are very strong allegations and if they prove to have traction, Major League Baseball can not sit around and do what the National Football League did regarding Rice. The legal process will play itself out but Major League Baseball doesn’t have to sit around and do nothing.

Yesterday, NBC’s Craig Calcaterra pointed out that there is precedent for the league to take action against Wilpon even before the legal process plays itself out. The league dealt with George Steinbrenner twice on matters of the front office, and Reds owner Marge Schott was banned from day-to-day activities for making racially insensitive remarks.

With less than a month before Rob Manfred takes over as commissioner, he has a chance to do what Bud Selig never did. Selig, a personal friend of the Wilpon’s, seemed to protect the family through any issues they were having. Now with Manfred’s arrival, Major League Baseball needs to hold Jeff Wilpon accountable. He no longer has Selig’s protection and unlike the NFL, Manfred should not waver. He should speak to the Wilpon’s and not hide behind due process as Goodell did.

Hitting a woman is not the same as firing someone for reasons that the law deems unlawful. Still, you can see the connection. Both are fundamental issues of what is wrong and what is right. If Wilpon did what he is accused of, then something must be done. This won’t cost the Wilpon’s ownership of the team, but standing up to them now could send them a significant message that there’s a new sheriff in town and that they either shape up or ship out.

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No surprise here, but sportscaster Keith Olbermann of ESPN named Jeff Wilpon the Worst Person in the World tonight. He completely ripped into him and his father Fred Wilpon, accusing both of them of running the team into the ground.

A lawsuit filed on Wednesday alleged that the Mets chief operating officer insulted and harassed senior vice president Leigh Castergine relentlessly because she was single and pregnant.

After several instances of abuse and humiliation, Castergine sought help from the Mets human resources department who in turn urged her to quit.

The Mets tried to offer Castergine a severance package under the condition that she agree not to pursue any legal claims against the team and remain silent on the matter, but she declined and was immediately terminated.

Here’s the video…

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Fired Mets VP of Ticket Sales Leigh Castergine, has filed a lawsuit today 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 states:

“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.’”

MMO will be continue to be on this like white on rice.

September 1 – Mets Fire Senior VP of Ticket Sales Leigh Castergine

In a statement released to Fred Kerber of the New York Post, the Mets confirmed the recent whispers that Leigh Castergine, senior vice president of ticket sales had been fired.

“Leigh Castergine, Senior Vice President of Ticket Sales & Services, is no longer with the organization. Although no replacement has been named yet, we have a talented staff in place to handle all ticket related business while we embark on a national search for this role.”

With only the Diamondbacks and Marlins selling fewer tickets in the National League than the Mets, writes Kerber, the team made the decision to ax Leigh, who had been with them since 2010.

Every disaster demands some blood-letting and a fall guy, or in this case, a fall girl.

Leigh leaves an indelible mark on the organization as she was the force behind modernizing the Mets ticket operations by ushering in dynamic ticket pricing while it was still in its infancy – a growing trend that has since been adopted by many other major league teams.

She also had an acute awareness of her marketplace and the ticket environment as a whole, confronting the ever-growing secondary ticket market head-on by offering ticket buyers more value for their dollars in the form of Summer Concerts, Free-Shirt Fridays, Family Tickets, and other unique promotions geared toward customer satisfaction and consumer value.

Unfortunately for Leigh, and despite all her best efforts, she could not overcome the fact that more and more fans were becoming disinterested in the primary product she was trying to market – a lackluster team who hasn’t had a winning season since 2008.

Castergine, who became a mother this year after the birth of her first child on Opening Day, will bounce back and reappear somewhere. There’s always a need for talent like hers in the sports industry, and after successful stints with the Orlando Magic in the NBA and the Boston Bruins in the NHL, it won’t be long until she’s called upon by another team. 

We wish her luck.

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