Empty seats he was used to — but a woman team executive having a baby out of wedlock was too much for Mets co-owner Jeff Wilpon to handle, a blockbuster new suit claims.
The first woman senior vice president in the team’s 52-year history claims in a federal lawsuit filed in Brooklyn Wednesday that Wilpon, the struggling team’s chief operating officer, canned her from her post heading ticket sales last month because he was “morally opposed” to her being pregnant and unmarried.
University of Pennsylvania grad Leigh Castergine, says in the suit, that Wilpon “frequently humiliated [her] in front of others by, among other things, pretending to see if she had an engagement ring on her finger.”
The suit claims Wilpon even stated “in a meeting of the team’s all-male senior executives that he is ‘morally opposed’ to Castergine ‘having this baby without being married.’”
“Wilpon told her that when she gets a ring she will make more money and get a bigger bonus,” the filing claims.
“I am as morally opposed to putting an e-cigarette sign in my ballpark as I am to Leigh having this baby without being married,” Wilpon said in a meeting over a proposed ad deal, according to the suit.
The son of Mets principal owner Fred Wilpon even warned Castergine’s co-workers to refrain from taking any interest in her unborn child.
“Do not rub her belly,” the suit says he commanded. “Don’t ask how she’s doing. She’s not sick, she’s pregnant.”
And it only got worse after she gave birth, Castergine claims. “Something had changed,” in her then, Wilpon told her, according to the suit. “Wilpon told her that she was no longer as ‘aggressive’ as she used to be.”
Her complaints to human resources and legal staffers were blown off, the suit states. She gave birth in March and returned to the team in June when for the first time in her four years with the team, she was hit with negative evaluations.
Wilpon told her that she wasn’t meeting ticket sales expectations for the out of contention team, but offered to let her remain through the end of the season if she promised to keep her mouth shut about the discrimination claims, the suit states.
But the disgusted mom rejected the deal and had her lawyer e-mail Wilpon to tell him that they were taking him to court. She was fired three minutes later, according to the suit.
Castergine took several shots at the team in the suit, noting it “failed to field a winning team in six years,” “fans had … pledged not to attend any games until there was a change in ownership,” and comparing her job “to selling deck chairs on the Titanic.”
Castergine — who previously worked for the Philadelphia 76ers, Orlando Magic and Boston Bruins — seeks unspecified damages from Wilpon and the team.
“We have received and reviewed the complaint. The claims are without merit. Our organization maintains strong policies against any and all forms of discrimination,” the Mets said in a statement.