Mets have turned Bobby Bonilla Day into an unofficial holiday: Like my birthday

For Mets fans, July 1 wasn’t always a day of celebration.During the Wilpon days, it served as a reminder of the peculiar state the franchise often operated in under the club’s previous owner, but after Steve Cohen took over in 2020, the day has turned into an unofficial holiday in Queens.July 1, better known as Bobby Bonilla Day to Mets fans, has become a celebration in its own right every year when the Mets pay the former major leaguer $1,193,248.20 as part of an agreement he made with the ball club when it bought out his contract in 2000.“It’s kind of become like my birthday so to speak, right? It’s become that big,” Bonilla, now 61, told The Post by phone.“I don’t think people know the exact date of my birthday, but they certainly know when this deferred comp comes in, so it’s pretty cool in that respect.”For the uninitiated, Bonilla signed with the Mets on a five-year, $29 million deal in 1991, the richest contract in team sports at the time.

Bonilla didn’t live up to the high expectations put on him after he signed and he was eventually traded to the Orioles, before ending up with the Marlins where he won a World Series title in 1997 and then returned to the Mets for the 1999 season.The Mets worked out a deal with Bonilla and his agent Dennis Gilbert following that year to buy out his contract in January 2000, with the agreement stipulating that the franchise would defer payment of the $5.9 million it owed him with 8 percent interest and spread it out from 2011-35.At the time ownership, led by Fred Wilpon, expected returns on investments made with Bernie Madoff, profits they had hoped to use to pay off the buyout.Instead, the team got swept up in the Madoff Ponzi scheme fallout and the original $5.9 million had ballooned to $29.8 million, which breaks down into the annual $1.19 million payment Bonilla receives.At first, the day had been a sore point for Mets fans as other fan bases delighted in their financial folly.

However, it has take...