Chris Granozio had worked for the Mets since 1996 as an assistant director, writer, archivist and scoreboard operator. But Granozio said his career ended after a co-worker recorded him in February laughing at jokes made by another colleague and shared it with human resources.
Granozio did not make the jokes, but acknowledges 'laughing and encouraging' his colleague, who used the word 'p*ssy.'
"We certainly were acting clownish," Granozio told the Daily Mail. "It was very brief and a one-time thing. We thought we were alone. It was not intended to harm or disparage anyone, it was generic. No names were used. It wasn't addressed to anyone."
Granozio soon learned his colleague was fired and a few days later HR called him into a meeting, where he was immediately fired and walked out of the stadium. He said he volunteered to apologize to the colleague who recorded him and to take sensitivity classes and to be suspended without pay, but that HR didn't give him any options to save his job.
"They said that I had violated something in the employee handbook, some statute of decency," he says. "My lawyer and I have looked at the handbook--there's nothing that we violated, either one of us."
Granozio said he planned to file a complaint with the New York City Human Rights Commission for unjust dismissal.
The New York Mets noted in a statement that "We are committed to maintaining a work environment that is free of discrimination and harassment, and our actions with respect to the employees in question were consistent with that objective."