What is Bobby Bonilla Day? The annual 'holiday' with memes, explained

It’s the thing sports fans love about the date July 1, and it’s every year, without fail: Something called Bobby Bonilla Day, a “holiday” of sorts celebrated everywhere by baseball fans, who share all the memes and jokes to talk about how the New York Mets pay someone who hasn’t been on the field since 2001 over a million dollars every year for years and years (but there’s another team who pays him! You’ll see in a minute).

So if you’re here, you might be wondering: What the heck is Bobby Bonilla Day? And why is it a meme that everyone shares and laughs about? Let’s break it all down for you as you wonder what the heck is going on every July 1.

It’s the annual celebration of the former MLB outfielder getting a deferred payment — money “deferred” from his contract long after his playing career ended — of over $1 million from the New York Mets, even though he also gets $500,000 from the Baltimore Orioles long after he retired.

The Mets will stop paying him in 2035 and the Orioles payments will stop in 2028.

See above! This will all end in 2035, which — wild to say it — is only nine years away as of publishing this!