Phil Regan, a 1955 graduate of Wayland High School, is suing the New York Mets for dismissing him as pitching coach, citing age discrimination.

Regan has sued the club and ex-general manager Brodie Van Wagenen over age-discrimination allegations, saying he was dismissed in 2019 at 82 for being ‘too old.’ Regan, now 85, helped transform then-Mets starters Jacob DeGrom, Noah Syndergaard, and Zach Wheeler into a dominant pitching trio before being let go over concerns about his age, according to Tuesday’s filing in Queens County Supreme Court.

Regan was a three-time winner of the Fireman of the Year Award while with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs in the 1960s and early 1970s. He later was hired as manager of the Baltimore Orioles. He was the Mets’ minor league assistant pitching coordinator when pitching coach Dave Eiland was fired during the 2019 season. After being promoted on an interim basis, the suit claims, the team’s pitchers enjoyed a remarkable turnaround, dropping their collective earned-run average from a dismal 4.67 to a respectable 4.24 – good enough for 11th in baseball.

Regan was an all-state basketball player for Wayland in 1955 when the team made it all the way to state finals in the Class tournament.