Bobby Bonilla is a former Major League Baseball player, having played 16 seasons with nine different teams.
In his final season with the St. Louis Cardinals, he was injured prior to the beginning of the season, leading to the often-reported (but untrue) story that his injury led to Albert Pujols making the Cardinals' roster (the beginning of what will most likely be a Hall of Fame career); in reality Pujols had already played well enough to make the roster.
Bonilla, however, is more noted for the deferred contract agreement he made with the New York Mets after the 1999 season, when he was released but still owed $5.9 million (all baseball contracts are fully guaranteed even if a player is released): he and his agent agreed to defer payment at 8% interest, with a first payment of around $1.19 million due on July 1, 2011 and annually on that date thereafter until 2035, resulting in total payments of $29.8 million for not playing with the team. The Mets owners agreed to the high interest rate as they were supposedly making more than that on investments; however, the investments were made with Ponzi scheme fraudster Bernie Madoff. As such, July 1 is humorously referred to by sports fans as "Bobby Bonilla Day".