This week of shitty sports-related news just got a little shittier, with a new lawsuit alleging that former New York Mets VP Leigh Castergine was terminated last month for having an out-of-wedlock pregnancy.
According to the suit, Mets owner Jeff Wilpon, who co-owns the team with his father, Fred, had a problem with Castergine making her own reproductive choices. He allegedly told Castergine that a wedding ring would result in a higher salary and bonus.
Now, the new mom is suing both Wilpon and the team for damages.
“[Jeff Wilpon] 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,’” reads the suit, according to the New York Post.
Castergine headed up the team’s marketing and ticket sales, and was the first woman to become a senior VP in the team’s history. She’d worked for a series of other teams before taking on the Mets, and was even floated around as a potential candidate to be a president in the industry.
She claims when she complained to the Mets’ human resources department, the organization’s response was to fire her.
