July 1 is a holy date for New York Mets fans., one of New York’s baseball teams in Major League Baseball (MLB). But the fans that day do not celebrate a victory, their team has not won the World Series since 1986, but the date of collection of the annual check of Bobby Bonilla, one of the stars of the League in the 80s and 90s.
Bonilla was once the highest-paid player in MLB when he signed with the Mets in his first stint with the team. Between 1992 and 1995 he earned 29 million dollars of the New York team. But it was in his second cycle in the team, to which he returned in 1999, the one that guarantees the retirement of Bobby Bonilla with what is probably the most ridiculous deal signed by any club in any sport with one of their players.
Bonilla was no longer in his prime and only lasted a year. The Mets decided to terminate his contract. because of his poor performance and because in one game he played cards on the bench, but instead of paying him the 5.9 million dollars that he had pending, they decided to defer the payment. Then Mets owner Fred Wilpon decided it was a good idea to put the money he had to pay Bonilla into a Bernie Madoff fund.. This would multiply your winnings and the player’s pending contract would pay for itself.
Bonilla and his agent agreed with the franchise to defer payment until 2011. At that time I would start receiving an annual payment of $1.2 million to which 8 percent interest would be added. Bernie Madoff’s fund turned out to be a pyramid scheme and Bobby Bonilla’s contract money went down the drain as the baseball player watched The 5.9 million dollars that remained on his contract were transformed into almost 30 that he will finish collecting in 2035, when he has turned 72.
So far, the Mets have already paid him more than $14 million and fifteen more are pending. But it is not the only “pension” that Bonilla receives, who retired in 2001 with the Baltimore Orioles and won his only World Series with the Florida Marlins in 1997. For the transfer from the Mets to the Orioles, he is guaranteed another annual deferred payment of $500,000. He began collecting it in 2004 and it is valid for 25 years.
New Mets owner Steven Cohen is willing to make July 1 a holiday. “I hope everyone is enjoying my favorite day of the year, Bobby Bonilla Day,” he wrote on his Twitter account.
I hope everybody is enjoying my favorite day of the year , Bobby Bonilla Day
— Steven Cohen (@StevenACohen2) July 1, 2022
That day the Mets launched a promotion that allows fans to reserve a box for four people for $250 that gives access to the use of the gym and the team shower that day and to take the honorary kick-off in the game that the Mets will play against the Atlanta Braves on July 28.
“It’s amazing what Steve and the Mets are doing. People forget my birthday, but nobody forgets July 1. I receive more text messages and calls that day than any other during the year”, Bobby Bonilla acknowledged in statements to USA Today.
