New York Mets

Bobby Bonilla will be 72 years old and still getting $1.19 million from the Mets

Published Nov. 15, 2016 3:16 p.m. ET

foxsports

July 1 has become an underrated American holiday for baseball fans. Bobby Bonilla Day.

Bobby Bonilla Day is the day every year the New York Mets cut a check for $1.19 million and Bonilla smiles a little wider and walks a little straighter as he cashes it in between whatever leisurely activities 53-year-old retired athletes do these days.

Bonilla will cash one of these checks today and on July 1 every year through 2035. In the final year, Bonilla will be 72 years old and still getting paid handsomely by the Mets.

Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Today he collects his annual $1.2m check from the New York Mets. pic.twitter.com/zMnDbaSPtn
— JT (@Jaberuski) July 1, 2016

If you're unfamiliar with how this all came together, in 2000 the Mets owed Bonilla $5.9 million but decided they didn't want him on their roster anymore. So they agreed to pay him an 8 percent annual interest rate with the first payment coming on July 1, 2011.

Bonilla hit .270 with 95 homers for the Mets over five seasons. Yep, it's pretty good being Bobby Bonilla.