NEW YORK – July 1 is probably going a cheerful day within the lifetime of retired baseball star Bobby Bonilla and maybe a irritating one for the New York Mets payroll division. That’s as a result of yearly on this date, the Mets pay Bonilla greater than $1 million for a season he by no means really performed in Flushing.
What’s Bobby Bonilla Day?
In Bonilla’s remaining stint with the Mets in 1999, he hit .160 with 4 dwelling runs and 18 RBIs over 60 video games. So reasonably than convey the getting older slugger again for the 2000 season, for which he was to be paid $5.9 million, Mets administration agreed to purchase out his contract.
However the phrases of the buyout are form of hilarious.Â
New York wished to defer funds to Bonilla for a decade.Â
Bobby Bonilla #25 of the New York Mets seems on throughout the sport towards the Montreal Expos on the Shea Stadium in Flushing, New York.Â
When does Bobby Bonilla Day finish?
So the crew supplied to pay Bonilla an installment yearly beginning on July 1, 2011, and ending on July 1, 2035. With a negotiated 8% rate of interest, the annual verify involves about $1.19 million. Which means Bobby will rake in almost $30 million as an alternative of the unique almost $6 mil. That is a fairly implausible return even when you think about inflation.
When is Bobby Bonilla Day?
And thus July 1 turned referred to as Bobby Bonilla Day amongst followers, who’ve mocked the deal for many years. However within the social media period, the annual occasion has reached a better degree of nuttiness.
Why does Bobby Bonilla nonetheless receives a commission?
Why would the Mets comply with one thing so absurd? Two phrases: Bernie Madoff. On the time of the deal, the crew and possession have been invested with the Ponzi schemer and anticipated large returns on their cash.
25 Jul 1993: Infielder Bobby Bonilla of the New York Mets in motion throughout a sport towards the Los Angeles Dodgers at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, California. Necessary Credit score: Stephen Dunn /Allsport
Properly, everyone knows what occurred.Â
(BTW, Madoff died in federal jail final 12 months. And the crew possession on the time — the Wilpon household — is gone. But Bobby Bonilla remains to be within the image and remains to be getting his money. Bonilla 1, Wilpons, 0, Madoff -whatever rating it means to have died behind bars.)
Are deferred funds frequent?
Deferred cost offers in baseball aren’t distinctive to the Mets and Bonilla, although the eye-popping phrases and circumstances is likely to be.
In actual fact, the Cincinnati Reds are paying Corridor of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. almost $3.6 million yearly by 2024.Â
And what’s even funnier is that Bonilla will get one more $500,000 annual cost in a separate deferred plan paid collectively by the Baltimore Orioles and — sure, unbelievably — the Mets by 2029, in response to ESPN.com.Â
Wait, what?
Anyway. Â
Bobby Bonilla contract finish
Bonilla, who final performed within the majors in 2001, was at all times entertaining to observe on the sector and within the batter’s field. Now 59, Bonilla will hold cashing these Mets checks till he’s 72, making certain that the Mets and their followers always remember him.
In his 16-year profession, Bonilla additionally performed for the Pittsburgh Pirates, the Baltimore Orioles, the Florida Marlins (with whom he received a World Sequence), the Atlanta Braves, the St. Louis Cardinals, the Los Angeles Dodgers, and the Chicago White Sox. He hit .279 and amassed 2,010 hits, 287 dwelling runs, 1,173 RBI, and 1,084 runs, in response to Baseball-Reference.com.