From the Archives: Bobby Bonilla, Steve Cohen, and the Mets
Sorry, no new post this week. Have a good Independence Day! (Remember: You can hate what a holiday stands for if you want, but every day off is a win for labor…)
Anyway, I missed Bobby Bonilla Day earlier this week, but I can’t miss a chance to reshare one of my favorite pieces:
“Bobby Bonilla Day” is Anti-Labor
This Thursday, like every July 1st until 2035, the Mets will write a check to Bobby Bonilla for a comically specific amount of money ($1,193,248.20), despite the fact that Bonilla has not played professional baseball since 2001, and has not played for the Mets since 1999. It’s known as “Bobby Bonilla Day,” and is commemorated by fans to the point that n…
Also, I wanted to pass along two recent, semi-related pieces about Steve Cohen:
The Steve Cohen Delusion (Part One)
We are now entering Year Four of the Steve Cohen Era, and so perhaps it is time to look back on some of the hysteria that greeted him when he first bought the New York Mets back in 2020. Ever since Cohen’s first press conference after buying out the Wilpon family, we’ve been hearing about how Cohen is going to turn the team around: “I’m not in this to b…
The Steve Cohen Delusion (Part Two)
We are six weeks into the baseball season, and the Mets remain — as many predicted before the season — eminently mediocre. After a rough start to the season, they got back to 8-8, and their record has hovered around .500 since then with remarkable consistency: They were 13-13, then 14-14, 15-15, 16-16, and now, as of this morning, they are 18-18. While …
I’m pretty proud of how these turned out, so enjoy!
July 4 falling on a Tuesday or Thursday is a DOUBLE win for labor, as it becomes common to for employers to designate the Monday or Friday as a holiday as well, Thanksgiving-style.