Jul 4, 2025 2 min read

Friday, July 4, 2025

It's a holiday here in America. Many people have a day off of work to celebrate our freedom and remember the sacrifices our forebears made to break ties with despotic rule. And eat hot dogs, but that's not really what I'm focusing on this year. Instead, I'm thinking about how much work it's going to be to climb out of the hole we dug ourselves into so that someday Independence Day won't seem like a sick, ironic joke. Obviously step one is to write (or read) a dumb newsletter so let's go.

Item 1: a link

The Washington Post tackles one of sports' greatest stories: Bobby Bonilla Day:

Bonilla is 62, which means several things. One is that, compared to when he was a six-time all-star and a World Series champion, his batteries don’t hold the same charge. In a few weeks, his youngest son, Roman, will enroll at USF, making Bonilla and Christina empty-nesters. Bonilla is still hulking, 6-foot-3 and a Tommy Bahama XXXL, with a movie star smile.

But now, maybe more than in his prime, he has become an icon of nostalgia and the subject of mythology that few from his generation can claim. Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr. and Derek Jeter may have been more accomplished, but none has his own unofficial holiday.

Bonilla hasn’t stepped into a major league batter’s box since 2001, yet every July 1 through 2035, the Mets will pay him $1,193,248.20. He provides no service for the organization, neither consulting, scouting nor coaching. Until recently, Bonilla didn’t even speak with anyone from the Mets, let alone set foot on team property. If anything, for Mets fans, Bobby Bonilla Day has become an occasion not for celebration but for solemn revulsion, a moment to look on Bonilla’s quarter-century-old contract as a recurring totem of the team’s tradition of haplessness.

I've always had a soft spot for this story, which combines some of my favorite topics – creative lawyers outwitting corporations and the Mets being hapless chumps. And although its a well-known tale at this point, Kent Babb does some yeoman's work reporting it out and talking to most of the key figures. Congratulations to Mr. Bonilla on getting all his kids out of the house.

Item 2: a list

Item 3: a media recommendation

a1 (Stare EP) - Ólafur Arnalds and Nils Frahm

Item 4: word of the week

Meed

I did my duty; I will have my meed. Specifically, my Amazon commission for shilling sketchy knock-off impact drivers on TikTok.

Item 5: a photograph

See ya!

Thanks for reading. See you next week.