Somebody has to Pay

[Lefty Specialist]

Yes sir. Saul gets to write off the donations to his own foundation. Big balls indeed.

[Edgy MD]

WOR just aired an add for Leeds Brown Law firm: "Have you been the victim of sexual harassment? ..."

[Diamond Dad]

The Mets cannot possibly fight this lawsuit. It is a nightmare to defend. If they were really smart, they would reinstate her to her old job and fire Jeff. Of course, that won't happen. So, what will happen is that the Mets will file an Answer to the Complaint in federal court, denying all the important allegations, and then get into mediation and work out a settlement that will not include any admission of wrongdoing and will require confidentiality and non-disclosure of the terms of the settlement. SHe will get paid off handsomely, and will find a job with some other organization and the Mets will pretend like it never happened. That's what happens with serial assholes who are in positions of great power in their organization -- they misbehave and then pay off the victims and nobody has the power or the inclination to hold them accountable. I've seen it happen many times.

[bmfc1]

DD: I agree that this is the likely path so why didn't the Mets settle before this was filed? From one article, her attorney is not a publicity seeker so she would have sought a settlement. Is it possible the Wilpons think they can beat these charges? Are the Wilpons just stupid (let me rephrase: stupid off the field, too)?

[Gwreck]

There is also the possibility - admittedly small - that this actually goes to trial. Castergine is represented by the same attorney who won a $11.6M* punitive damages award for Anucha Browne Sanders against the Knicks and Jim Dolan.

Admittedly, a big part of the problem there was that Dolan refused to consider settlement.

Sad to say, I think it's an open question as to whether Jeff Wilpon is that stupid.


* settled for $11.5 M prior to appeal

[Diamond Dad]

The Vladick firm is a well-known plaintiff's shop. I wouldn't say that they are publicity seekers per se, but this case was filed lightning fast, and brought in federal court (where it doesn't really belong) and then announced to the press. All that sounds like a squeeze play. If you wanted to try this case, you would bring it in state court. As it is, they don't really have a basis to be in federal court, but they trumped up an FMLA claim that isn't really there just so that they could have federal jurisdiction.

The proper way to process a case like this is to (a) contact the other side and discuss settlement in advance, then ( file with the EEOC and then let the EEOC attempt to mediate. If the case is not settled at the EEOC level, then you get a "right to sue" letter and you can bring an action in federal court. The fact that they rushed to file this and publicize it suggests that they are looking for a quick settlement so that the Mets can avoid the bad publicity.

But if the case did get to a trial, it would be a nightmare for the team.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

You've got a Winston Wolfe thing going there with the expert advice and the tuxedo, I gotta say.

[Diamond Dad]

Not what I was going for . . . but I'll take it!

[Ceetar]

Diamond Dad wrote: The Vladick firm is a well-known plaintiff's shop. I wouldn't say that they are publicity seekers per se, but this case was filed lightning fast, and brought in federal court (where it doesn't really belong) and then announced to the press. All that sounds like a squeeze play.

Also, as unfair as it is, suing your prior employee doesn't look good in job interviews, no matter the grounds. Especially with the chances that similar employees might actually agree with Jeff's supposed comments.

[Centerfield]

At the headquarters of Sterling Enterprises, immediately following a meeting in which good coffee was served...

Diamond Dad: Freddie, lead the way. Boys, get to work.

Jeff Wilpon: A please would be nice.

Diamond Dad: Come again?

Jeff Wilpon: I said a please would be nice.

Diamond Dad: Get it straight assclown - I'm not here to say please, I'm here to tell you what to do and if self-preservation is an instinct you possess you'd better fucking do it and do it quick. I'm here to help - if my help's not appreciated then lotsa luck, gentlemen.

Saul Katz: No, Mr. Diamond Dad sir, it ain't like that, your help is definitely appreciated.

Jeff Wilpon: I don't mean any disrespect, I just don't like people barking orders at me.

Diamond Dad: If I'm curt with you it's because time is a factor. I think fast, I talk fast and I need you guys to act fast if you wanna get out of this. So, pretty please... with sugar on top. Settle the fucking case.

[Diamond Dad]

Yeah, it went something like that . . .

(As always, ROFL reading this stuff.)

[Valadius]

This could finally... FINALLY... be the straw that breaks the camel's back. The recent light thrown on sports' treatment of women could not have come at a worse time for li'l Jeffy.

[Edgy MD]

First post in seven months for Vladdy. Welcome back.

[Valadius]

Nothing gets me more excited about the Mets than the prospect of Jeff Wilpon carrying a packing box filled with model airplanes as he's kicked out of "his" ballpark.

[Guest themetfairy]

This idiocy took place during Leigh's maternity leave, and certainly did nothing to help ticket sales.

[Guest themetfairy]

Edgy MD wrote: How much is the suit demanding?

She's asking for her job back; lost wages, pension and other lost benefits; punitive damages; pain and suffering; attorneys fees and other assorted items with an unspecified dollar value.

[Lefty Specialist]

Getting her job back would be, well, awkward. Even if she won, I doubt she'll ever set foot inside Citifield again unless it's as an owner.

[Guest d'Kong76]

She's asking for money, and she'll get it.

[Guest themetfairy]

Of course she is. But in response to the question of what the suit is demanding, reinstatement is on the wish list.

[Guest d'Kong76]

Just boiling it down, Counselor. :+)

[Guest themetfairy]

When they say it's not about the money, it's about the money.

But not for nothing, she needs to be able to establish that she's ready, willing and able to return the work as part of the claim.

[Diamond Dad]

Her best chance for most money is if she were actually awarded reinstatement. Then the Wilpons would have to pay her off in order to get her to forego her right to reinstatement. The likelihood is just a straight money settlement. She won't walk away empty handed here.

[Edgy MD]

Mark Healey brought up the Leon Lee incident in his blog, and it is relevant. Since Jeff Wilpon is enjoying the benefit of the doubt the organization never gave to Lee, it might be a good idea if Jeff took a leave of absence, pending the resolution of the issue, and/or if the board asked him to.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Powerfully harsh words about Jeff Wilpon and the state of the Mets in light of the Castergine lawsuit:

MLB can take stand NFL didn't in vetting Jeff Wilpon accusations with severe potential consequences

Jeff Passan
By Jeff Passan September 10, 2014 9:56 PM Yahoo Sports

[fimg=544]http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/KWaXl1ciTlnkMzQ3laK49Q--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Zmk9ZmlsbDtoPTYzODtweW9mZj0wO3E9NzU7dz05NjA-/http://media.zenfs.com/en_US/Sports/USA_Today/20131210_ajl_mb2_019-50357b58756c7e3c886be6c3f9fe0385[/fimg]

A lawsuit Wednesday alleged that Jeff Wilpon, the chief operating officer of the New York Mets, harassed and later fired one of his senior vice presidents because he didn't agree with her pregnancy. If this is true � if these disgusting, abhorrent acts of misogyny receive even one iota of confirmation � one of Bud Selig's final acts as commissioner must be to rid Major League Baseball of this nepotistic fraud once and for all. Selig, or his successor Rob Manfred, must do this because baseball needs to tell the world it is a safe place for women. That its top executives won't scoff and sneer and bungle the issues that face women every day like the NFL did the Ray Rice case. MLB shouldn't do this as a reaction to Rice; it should because it is the right thing to do. Whether it's a left to the jaw or a barrage of dehumanizing insults, a system that allows any kind of mistreatment toward women is broken. Baseball likes to consider itself a progressive sport, dating back to Jackie Robinson's breaking the color line and through today, with Billy Bean serving as an ambassador to the LGBT community. Women occupy a number of high-ranking positions in baseball. One such woman worked as a senior vice president for the Mets. Her name is Leigh Castergine, and she ran ticket sales for the Mets until Wilpon fired her three weeks ago after demeaning her for nearly a year with churlish comments about being pregnant without being married, according to her lawsuit. The idea of a Wilpon playing moral superior � of someone from the family that profited off the Ponzi scheme Bernie Madoff used to cripple lives holding himself in such esteem � dovetails with the stories of social and emotional incompetence that have chased him during his years running the Mets. It takes a remarkable level of ineptitude to make Jim Dolan look like the more competent of the New York sports scions. For years, Selig's soft spot for the Wilpon family has allowed him to overlook their need for a loan to stay afloat amid the Madoff chaos, their mismanagement of a jewel franchise into the sort that operates like a low-revenue pauper, their public flubs that made #LOLMets a thing. Selig enabled the Mets knowing majority owner Fred Wilpon planned on gifting the franchise to Jeff, an underqualified bully who never would have sniffed sports-franchise ownership were he not bequeathed his last name. Now MLB faces this reality: Jeff Wilpon sits on the board of directors for MLB Enterprises and MLB Network. The former group procures national broadcasting, sponsorship and licensing deals, and the latter is the public face of the sport. It's one thing to have a reprobate in ownership; it's another to give him a position of power in rooms where billion-dollar deals are negotiated. Does a company really want to do business with an entity that confers power on a man who allegedly told a Mets employee he is "old fashioned and thinks [Castergine] should be married before having a baby"? A man who told her that "when she gets a ring, she will make more money and get a bigger bonus"? A man who, in front of a room of executives, laid out two rules for dealing with Castergine, according to the lawsuit: "Don't touch her belly and don't ask how she's doing; she's not sick, she's pregnant"? If this is the sort of behavior MLB represents, it's just as bad as the NFL. Sports can be a miserable place for women, a cesspool of sexual harassment and abuse. It is incumbent on leagues not just to remind women they are a vital part of the sporting experience but actively encourage their involvement. Hopefully, more women in positions of power equal less Neanderthal behavior from a sporting culture awash in it. Because nowhere should a woman have to hear what Leigh Castergine allegedly heard. When considering whether to accept an advertisement from an electronic cigarette company in February, the lawsuit alleges, Wilpon said: "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." My ballpark. Mine. That's how Jeff Wilpon carried himself for years, as the cock of the walk, the all-knowing executive who, in reality, knew only how to take a proud franchise and run it into the ground. He directs the Mets with the vision of a mole, and people around the sport � from players to agents to executives � wish he would learn to burrow into the ground like one, too. The lawsuit alleges that Wilpon fired Castergine on Aug. 20 because she hadn't met sales goals. He allegedly said "something changed" and she wasn't "as aggressive as she once had been," and all of this came after Castergine went to a woman named Holly Lindvall, the Mets' executive director of human resources, and reported all of Wilpon's remarks. Lindvall's response, according to the suit: "She instead urged Castergine to quit." When she didn't, Wilpon offered Castergine a severance package of five weeks' salary, provided she didn't pursue legal claims, including harassment and discrimination, against the team. She instead sued, and baseball now is in a position of action. An immediate investigation is warranted, and considering the Mets' inner circle of executives is small, it should not take long. Baseball can vet Castergine's claims in short order, and if even one of them is true, do what is necessary. The impact could be massive. Mets fans for years have bemoaned the Wilpon ownership, knowing Fred planned on handing the franchise to Jeff. If MLB makes it clear, as it should, that it will not stand for misogyny of any sorts in its ranks, and Jeff Wilpon is shown to have engaged in systemic abuse, his ouster could alter his father's plans. The Mets long ago deserved better owners, and now is Selig's chance to remedy his own errors or Manfred's to remedy his predecessor's. And, more than that, it's baseball's chance to take a stand. Sports needs people with the courage to say it is not OK for anyone in a position of power, be it physical or political, to use it in the mistreatment of women. Sports is at its finest when it's inclusive, when the Leigh Castergines of the world can go to work without fear their bosses will discriminate against them for the sin of being a woman. The opportunity exists. The time is right. The priority is evident. MLB should be a safe place for women, and that starts with an immediate investigation to see if Jeff Wilpon is as bad a person as he is an executive.

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/mlb-can-take-stand-nfl-didn-t-in-vetting-jeff-wilpon-accusations-with-severe-potential-consequences-015709001.html