Happy Bobby Bonilla Day and Other Contract Situations

Three-Dot Tuesday 7.1

That paycheck is OUTTA HERE (Courtesy: AP Photo/Osamu Honda/NewsNation)

It’s July 1^st, which means it’s the start of a new fiscal year, which means it’s infamously “Bobby Bonilla Day,” an amazing story of greed and perceived value coming back to haunt people for decades. In 2000, the New York Mets wanted to buy out Bonilla’s contract, which at the time had $5.9 million remaining. But Mets ownership was heavily invested in the Bernie Madoff Ponzi scheme and figured they would be rolling in cash forever. So, they negotiated deferred payments. And for some reason that nobody has been able to properly explain to me, they offered to pay him about $1.2 million a year for 25 years starting in 2011 with the payment coming every July 1^st, day one of the new fiscal year…

Bobby Bo and his reps took that deal. That’s one you don’t negotiate; you just say yes…

He’ll get the last payment in 2035, when he’s 72. He last played for the Mets before the turn of the millennium, in 1999. His last major league season was 2001 with the Cardinals…

The goofiest part of the story is thanks to a very similar contract negotiated with the Mets and Baltimore Orioles, a player is getting $500,000 for 25 years, which started in 2004… and that player is… Bobby Bonilla! (Apparently that deal was the inspiration for the more famous one.)

It’s also Canada Day, which is commonly perceived to be their version of Independence Day, but it isn’t. in 1867, Great Britain allowed the territories of Canada to self-govern, but the actual full split from the mother country wasn’t official until 1982 (at which point it was all-but ceremonial).

I’ve always wanted to go to the Blue Jays Canada Day home game on July 1, and then follow that up with the Washington Nationals 4^t of July game just to compare and contrast…

The San Francisco Giants can’t hit a lick and are a horrid 4-9 since making the big trade for slugger Rafael Devers and have now fallen eight games back of the Los Angeles Dodgers, so President of Baseball Operations Buster Posey chose today to pick up Manager Bob Melvin’s contract for next year, a big show of confidence.

I ignore anybody who advocates for Melvin to be fired anyway. He’s one of the best managers in the game and has been for years. If you can convince me that firing Melvin will get Devers to stop swinging at high fastballs out of the zone, then I’ll think about listening.

The people who call for Melvin to be fired are usually the same people who advocate for nine-time NBA Champion Steve Kerr to be fired, who I also ignore. It’s nice to keep all the crazies in the same bin.

It felt like I was about the only Kevon Looney fan by the end of this most recent Golden State Warriors season. A lot of people were complaining he didn’t get rebounds like he used to, and I always say Loon was not the sickness, but the symptom. If you’re missing 45 threes a game, well then, 12 rebounds aren’t going to look like a lot of productivity. The Warriors have always been too small, and now that big men shoot threes all the time, Loon’s 9-7-5 stat lines weren’t looking too sharp.

Loon left the Warriors after a decade and signed a two-year $16 million contract in New Orleans on the first day of NBA free agency. Hope he gets a lot of rebounds for the Pelicans, because they are going to be terrible. But it does reunite him with Jordan Poole, and it means they can talk trash about Draymond Green without worry.

As noted by a regular reader, on Friday night Baltimore Orioles starter Tomoyaki Sugano gave up three home runs and six runs in the second inning against the Tampa Bay Rays and the disaster was barely noted afterwards. Why? Because the Orioles promptly came back and won the game 22-8, the biggest margin of victory by a team since 1901 when they trailed by at least six runs at any point…

And yeah, Sugano ended up going five innings and got the win. So, the reader’s question is: what’s the worst performance by a starting pitcher who ended up getting credited with the win? Turns out Sugano isn’t even in the conversation…

The correct answers are San Diego’s Woody Williams, who in 2001 gave up 12 hits and 9 runs (8 earned) and won because they were in Colorado (of course). Williams and the Padres trailed 9-6 after 5 innings. In the top of the 6th Colorado’s Mike Hampton gave up three straight hits and a run and got pulled, and the Padres scored four more times to take the lead for good and Hampton was off the hook despite also giving up nine runs. Williams then pitched to one batter in the 6th, promptly gave up a hit and got replaced, but that kept him in line for the win and he got it, as the Padres won 14-10…

The Padres manager who clearly just sent out Williams to pitch to one guy in the 6th so he would be eligible for the victory? Why, Bruce Bochy, of course…

(And it just feels like Hampton signed a Bonilla-like deal. In 2000 Colorado gave him an eight-year $121 million contract, at the time the largest in baseball history… and traded him to Atlanta just two years later.)

And in 1928, Cincinnati Reds pitcher Pete Donohue gave up 14 hits and 11 runs, all earned, in just over 6 innings against the Boston Braves and got the win because the Reds won 20-12…

Six runs and a win? Child’s play!

(Boy, it would be nice if the Giants scored six runs in a game again. *sigh*)

In the NHL draft, the San Jose Sharks made history by picking the highest-ever drafted Chinese-born player, Simon Wang, with the first pick of the second round, but that’s not even half the story. Wang was born in Beijing, started skating at age four, and when it was clear he had the talent his family eventually moved to Canada, and he moved up the ranks real fast- he’s still 17 and is already 6-foot_6....

But the goofiest part of this story is that his mom was so determined he would have every chance to succeed at hockey and made sure of it. While they were still in Beijing she found land that was set aside for a soccer field and made the local sports association build a rink instead. And then after they moved to Canada, she bought a junior hockey team and moved it to their town so he wouldn’t have to travel so far to play. Looks like Mom’s got some pull!

Next thing you know, she’ll get the Mets to pay her $1.2 million every July first!

Finally, shoutout to the US Women’s Ultimate Frisbee Under-24 team, who won the world championship in Spain over the weekend. One of the best players on the US squad is Syris Linkfield, who is the daughter of two of the best Ultimate players of the past 30 years… one of which happens to be my cousin.

So that makes me related to a World Champ. Pretty good! Next thing you need to do, Syris, is go get yourself a Bobby Bonilla payday…

Syris the Champ