Happy July 1st, dear readers. For our northern friends today is Canada Day; on this date in 1867, Canada became a self-governing dominion of Great Britain and a federation of four provinces: Nova Scotia; New Brunswick; Ontario; and Quebec. Canada Day is like our own Independence Day coming up in a few days. July 1st is also Blink 182 Day as it is the 182nd day of the year, National Ginger Snap Day, National Fried Clam Day and Zip Code Day. The United States Zip Code’s 5-digit sequence went national in the US on July 1, 1963.
For Mets fans today is quite significant as it is Bobby Bonilla Day. July 1st is a great day for many baseball players to check their direct deposit account as it is the date many deferred salary payments are made, but it is an especially great day for Bobby. Since 2011, Bobby Bonilla has received a payment of $1,193,248.20 on this date and will continue to do so until 2035. Why does a player who has not played a game since 2001 receive such a large check every year? According to Mike Axisa of CBSsports.com:
The Mets signed Bonilla to a five-year contract worth $29 million in 1991 that was the richest contract in team sports at the time. He spent the first three-and-a-half seasons of that contract with New York before being traded away. Bonilla won a World Series with the Marlins in 1997 and was later traded back to the Mets as part of Florida’s post-championship fire sale.
The Mets released Bonilla in January 2000 but were still on the hook for his $5.9 million salary that season. Believing they were poised to make a significant profit through their investments with Bernie Madoff, Met’s ownership instead agreed to defer Bonilla’s salary with 8 percent interest and spread it across 25 years from 2011-35.
Well, the Madoff ponzi scheme fell apart, and Bonilla’s $5.9 million swelled to $29.8 million from 2000-11. That $29.8 million divided by 25 years equals the annual $1.19 million payment.
Bobby Bonilla has since become the face of the deferred salary payment in baseball, but he is not the only one. There are many former players like Bonilla who receive a yearly payment from their former teams. Players such as former Atlanta Brave Bruce Sutter, former Met Bret Saberhagen and former Red Sox Manny Ramirez all receive deferred salary payments yearly.
So why has Bobby Bonilla become the face of the deferred salary payment? I think it is due to the long suffering, but enduring Met’s fan. Bonilla’s contract was just another albatross around the beleaguered franchise’s neck. Met’s fans have endured plenty in the past fifty-nine years since their creation. This is a team whose management dealt Nolan Ryan (324 career wins) to California for Jim Fregosi in 1971 and Tom Seaver (311 career wins) to Cincinnati for Steve Henderson, Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn and Dan Norman in 1977. There are many, many more instances of Met’s blunders which are too lengthy to include in a modest blog post, but if you are a Met’s fan, you understand the pain.
However, no matter what the blunder, the Met’s fan endures. Our team motto is “Ya Gotta Believe!” which was first uttered by Tug McGraw during the 1973 season. We always believe our team is about to turn a corner and I think we are on the cuspid of turning a corner with the new ownership of the team by Steve Cohen. Steve Cohen is a long time Met’s fan with billions of dollars and the commitment to turn the franchise around. Fingers crossed….
Not only do Met’s fans believe we also have a sense of humor. We now regard Bobby Bonilla Day with laughs not tears. Former owners, the Wilpons (or the Coupons as I liked to call them) are gone and the future looks promising. Mets fans have learned to celebrate Bobby Bonilla Day and there have been calls for the organization to have a Bobby Bonilla Day celebration at Citi Field, which if rumors are true, will happen next season.
Finally, not only do we endure and find humor in our team’s woes, but we also find community in our commiseration as Met’s fans. According to the Cambridge English Corpus, “Laughing in the face of adversity is an essential feature of the maintenance of culture.” Met’s fans embrace the adversity, and we celebrate it. I love meeting other Met’s fans because only we understand each other’s pain yet enduring love of our team.
What other team would have a day to celebrate the remembrance of a financial blunder that continues until 2035? I doubt the Atlanta Braves will have a Bruce Sutter Day to celebrate his deferred salary payment.
Time Out With Jenn & Lisa 