It's Bobby Bonilla day!!! NY METS pay him $1.2M and will until 2035

[underpants]

ESPN


It's Friday, July 1, and we should be thinking about our Fourth of July weekend plans. But as baseball fans, we can't. Why? Because today is all about Bobby Bonilla.

A man who last played 5,381 days ago owns this day. Not just this July 1, but every July 1 through 2035. It's the day when the New York Mets pay him $1,193,248.20.



How does the deal actually work?

The Mets owed Bonilla $5.9 million for the 2000 season and no longer wanted him. So the club negotiated with Gilbert to attach an 8 percent annual interest rate to that money. With the clock starting in 2000, that adds up to $29.8 million. The first installment of the payout came on July 1, 2011, and the Mets will pay their sixth installment on Friday.

Why did the Mets do the deal?

The Mets have never really talked about the deal, but it is well known that their owners, the Wilpons, had many accounts with investor Bernie Madoff. Madoff was returning 12 to 15 percent a year in what we now know were fictional returns. So deferring deals wasn't a problem because the payout would occur years later and the interest rate would be lower than the money they were (fictionally) getting back from Madoff. To see the deal as the Mets would have seen it, let's say the Wilpons put $5.9 million into a Madoff account in 2000 and got a conservative (by Madoff standards) 10 percent annual return. By 2011, when they would have to pay Bonilla for the first time, they would have already grown their pot to $16.83 million. Even with paying off Bonilla every year, they would wind up with a $49 million profit on the deal. Of course, the Madoff returns weren't real, which complicates this hindsight.

[PJMcK]

1. Good analysis, underpants

I vaguely wondered what that was all about but couldn't care enough to research the story. Thanks for your concise explanation.

Personally, my response to the Mets/Bonilla deal is: Boo fucking hoo. Millionaires paying a millionaire.

The story underscores the observation that just because one has money doesn't mean they're smart. Right, Donald Trump?

Happy Fourth of July!

[underpants]

2. Thanks. Not my analysis ESPN's.

Happy Fourth!!

[JackRiddler]

3. The Wilpons didn't actually lose any money with Madoff - curious, no?

They actually lied about it at first, acted all outraged that their long-running family friend proved to be a financial pirate, and even claimed they had to cut the team's budget because of it, but later stories have established they somehow, magically, were among those who did not lose money with Madoff.

It takes a very special kind of fucked-up rich-privileged-people logic to come up with that Bonilla deal. As if 10% a year forever is some kind of divine right of the rich. Despite this kind of idiocy, they manage to keep failing up, like all good well-connected New York oligarchs (see: Trump). Like the Yankees, the Mets got about $400 million in subsidies, tax breaks and infrastructure spending to support their new stadium. Bloomberg bestowed upon them the project to demolish Willets Point and replace it with high-end development.

They are horrible people and a big reason why I can barely stand it any more to watch my beloved Mets. And what the fuck is Daniel Murphy doing in a Nationals uniform?!

[underpants]

6. Not a Mets fan

But as a sports fan I feel your pain.

[Lance Bass esquire]

5. The Padres have kept a pitcher who is in a wheel chair

On the roster for over 20 years now to cover his medical bills. Total opposite of the Mets situation.
Stay Classy San Diego

Can't get the link to work..just search for Matt LaChappa.

[underpants]

7. Got a link.

great story

Thanks

[Lance Bass esquire]

8. Thank you !!!