Enjoy Bobby Bonilla Day While You Can, Mets Fans! (Only 9 Left!!)

July 1st is a holiday in certain corners of the baseball world, and Rich made sure the show observed it properly. Happy Bobby Bonilla Day.

For the uninitiated, Rich laid out the tradition. Every year on this date, the New York Mets cut Bobby Bonilla a check for roughly $1.19 million, and they will keep doing it through 2035, when Bonilla turns 72. There are, as the show noted, only nine more Bobby Bonilla Days left after this one.

The genesis is the fun part, and Rich walked through it. Bonilla last played for the Mets in 1999. When the team decided to buy out the remaining 5.9 years of his contract, it opted not to pay the lump sum. Instead, the Mets agreed to make annual payments over 25 years at a negotiated 8 percent interest. Why stretch five years into 25? Because the Mets believed they had their money parked in an account earning double-digit interest. The problem, as Rich delivered the punchline, was whose account it turned out to be. "That was Bernie Madoff's account."

By the time the arrangement ends in 2035, Bonilla will have earned nearly $30 million from a contract he stopped playing under more than a quarter century earlier. And the current ownership, Rich noted, does not mind one bit. He pointed out that Steve Cohen, for whom this annual payment is essentially kindling, has said the day should be celebrated rather than mourned.

To prove it, the show put up a photograph of the festivities, with Mr. Met dancing behind Bonilla. Rich delighted in the image of the mascot simply vibing through the occasion. This marks the 16th year that Bonilla has collected his check, and the tradition has long since outgrown its origins to become an unofficial New York holiday.

So Rich extended the greeting to Mets fan TJ Jefferson and to everyone who marks the date. Enjoy Bobby Bonilla Day while it lasts, because the countdown is on. Only nine left.