July first.
Lazy writers and media outlets have had this day circled on their calendars for months.
BOBBY BONILLA DAY!
Every July 1st, the Mets send Bobby Bonilla a check for $1,193,248.20. The ex Met began receiving these annual payments in 2011 and will continue to do so until 2035.
Deferred payments are actually somewhat common in baseball. Todd Helton, Max Scherzer, Manny Ramirez and Ken Griffey Jr. are just some of the players who wait by their mailboxes every year.
Yet, none of their former employers receive any of the scrutiny the Mets do.
I’ll be the first to admit that the team was wildly dysfunctional the last few decades.
Mets provided the media with ammunition to mock them on a daily basis. LOLMETS was (and still is) low hanging fruit which ensured a steady stream of clicks and views.
So, Bobby Bonilla is the gift that keeps on giving. Every single year!
LOLMETS! 5.9 million dollars remaining on Bonilla’s contract and they decided to pay him a million dollars for 25 years!
The fact that these payments started in the wake of the Bernie Madoff fiasco? Forget about it. Sports writers were salivating.
Let’s be frank. The main reason this is still a story is because the Mets were a joke.
Our new owner, Steve Cohen, took the first steps to eliminating this story by simply embracing it.
He still has work to do.
Remember Jacob deGrom’s ascent to stardom?
Sure, the media begrudgingly told you how good deGrom was, but that wasn’t the story.
No, the story was the inept Mets’ offense. “DeGrom would have this many wins if the pathetic Mets could just score!”
What happened? Well, deGrom made it impossible to talk about anything else by becoming the best pitcher on the planet.
Also, the Mets are now winning the games deGrom pitches which certainly helps. (We could still use some offense though.)
You know what I would like to read next July 1st?
- Mets have won 12 of 13 and sit comfortably atop the NL East.
- DeGrom looks poised to capture his fourth Cy Young Award.
- Francisco Lindor has hit a home run in 9 straight games.
Let’s stop feeding into this Bobby Bonilla nonsense, as a fanbase.
Steve Cohen? Let’s force the media to talk about something else. Like a winning ballclub, for example.
From where I’m sitting? The joke is on our former owners. They thought they could save a little money short term by giving it to Bernie Madoff and it wound up blowing up in their faces.
Unfortunately, it’s the fans who have been catching strays for a decade.
Hopefully, it stops now.