Happy Bobby Bonilla Day

[Nick Street]

One of the all time great contracts

 

[Mordith]

The GOAT

 

[Nick Street]

Bobby Bonilla ‘took the Mets to the woodshed’ with his lucrative 25-year deal​

KEY POINTS

• Bobby Bonilla, a former baseball player, still receives $1.2 million from the New York Mets each year on July 1, known widely as Bobby Bonilla Day.
• He’s collected those payments for a decade and will do so through 2035 because of a buyout deal the Mets signed in 2000.
• The deal is generous in part due to investments the team had made with notorious Ponzi schemer Bernie Madoff.

Bobby Bonilla of the New York Mets looks on before a baseball game against the Arizona Diamondbacks on May 15, 1999 at Shea Stadium in New York.
Mitchell Layton/Getty Images

Bobby Bonilla, who retired as a baseball player in 2001, hasn’t played for the New York Mets since 1999.

Yet Bonilla is among the highest-paid position players on the Mets’ payroll this year.

The team paid the 57-year-old $1,193,248.20 on Wednesday — as it has each year over the past decade and will continue doing through 2035.

His payday, July 1, is known widely as “Bobby Bonilla Day.”

That good fortune is courtesy of a contract Bonilla signed with the franchise in the early 2000s, regarded as one of the most legendary deals in sports history.

For the Mets, it’s known as one of the worst — and one that involves Bernie Madoff’s notorious Ponzi scheme that blew up during the 2008 financial crisis.

Bobby Bonilla 'took the Mets to the woodshed' with his lucrative 25-year deal

The Mets pay Bobby Bonilla nearly $1.2 million each year on July 1. The deal is among the best for a player in sports history for several reasons.

www.cnbc.com

 

[8WON6]

the greatest finesse in sports history.

 

[Jean toomer]

Bobby Bonilla…from the boogie down

 

[SNYC]

He also tried to divorce his wife before the payments started.

I know it was finalized after the checks started coming. Don't remember the settlement details.

 

[The ADD]

 

[BujuBoombastic]

Black Excellence

 

[Yehuda]

 

[Da_Eggman]

Props to the gawd finesse

 

[8WON6]

the greatest finesse in sports history.

 

[skyrunner1]

 

[King Poetic]

He should thank his wife every day for having him take that long money

 

[F*ckthemkids]

 

[Michael's Black Son]

One of the greatest licks in sports history and Bobby/his agent took full advantage of the stupidity of the Mets.

All of us are going to be by the time he gets the rest of that money.