From Thursday’s New York Daily News and John Marzulli.

A black woman who was the Mets’ director of human resources claims she was treated more like a maid by two of her bosses, including the owner’s son.

Shez Jackson was ordered to clean dirty utensils and stock a pantry with cereal despite holding a master’s degree and earning $85,500, her lawyer, Jack Tuckner, said yesterday.

“These white bosses, the power structure, don’t acknowledge women in the highest levels of the organization, especially black women,” Tuckner said. “It was like, give it to a colored woman to clean up.”

Jackson, 37, is suing the Mets, the team’s chief operating officer, Jeff Wilpon, and its general counsel, David Cohen, for unspecified monetary damages.

Her civil rights suit, filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, alleges she was discriminated against and fired because of her gender and race.

She claims her problems began after Wilpon’s father, Fred Wilpon, became sole owner of the team in the summer of 2002.

The Mets’ VP of facilities allegedly summoned her to the office pantry, assuming she was responsible for cleaning the area. When Jackson disagreed, “Jeffrey Wilpon overheard the conversation [and] pointed a finger close to Ms. Jackson’s face while shouting at her that she was in fact responsible for removing used kitchen utensils and a serving tray from the pantry area,” the complaint states.

Another time, Cohen allegedly called Jackson at 9 a.m. and “scolded her because there was not enough cereal in the pantry,” the complaint states. Jackson bought cereal containers, but Cohen complained “the containers ‘poured out only one or two Cheerios at a time.'”

I don’t want to say that Jackson’s case is without merit, but Jim Duquette has been in charge of the cereal inventory for the past few months and you don’t hear him complaining about it.


(above : an important part of a balanced breakfast when you’re spending the day bidding against yourself)

In other news, Mets GM Omar Minaya claims he’s been swamped with phone calls from free agents dying to sign with New York since the acquisition of Pedro Martinez. I’m still fumbling with my cell phone’s many features, but even I know how to block calls from John Franco.