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.