Sylvia Lind, the current director of baseball initiatives in the Office of the Commissioner, has brought a lawsuit against Major League Baseball for what she is claiming as two decades of discriminatory business practices.
Lind is the highest-ranking Hispanic woman in MLB's entire management system. Her lawsuit names commissioner Bud Selig and vice president of baseball development (and hall-of-famer) Frank Robinson as defendants.
Here are the full details of the lawsuit, via ESPN:
Lind's lawsuit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified damages for what she describes as a failure by the league to consider, interview, appoint and promote qualified Hispanic women to managerial and executive positions. Lind, 48, says the league has created a hostile work environment for her because of her age.
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The lawsuit says Lind works in an industry dominated by white men and has been passed over for promotions and underpaid since 1995.
Lind said Hispanics are underrepresented in the management level while baseball has a high percentage of Hispanic players. She said of 52 people who are vice presidents or above only two are Hispanic and only 12 are women.
According to the lawsuit, Lind, who is of Cuban descent and lives in New Jersey, earned her law degree from Fordham University School of Law in 1995. It says she began working for Major League Baseball on Nov. 21, 1995, as supervisor in the legal department of MLB Properties Inc. at an annual salary of $43,000.
She said she was the only Hispanic female lawyer in the legal department at the time and no Hispanic attorneys have been hired since.
Lind said her troubles with the league worsened after Robinson, who played for several teams between 1956 and 1976, became executive vice president of baseball development in June 2012 and criticized her writing and other skills.
She said Robinson, who won rookie of the year and MVP honors with the Cincinnati Reds and MVP with the Baltimore Orioles, lacked the educational credentials, professional license and executive experience to qualify for the job, which paid him more than $1 million annually.
Stay tuned to our Major League Baseball league page for the latest on this breaking news story as additional information is made available to the press.
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