By JOHN JAMES MARSHALL/Designated Writers

The DesignatedWriters.com staff feels compelled to apologize. It must have been some kind of clerical error — probably the fault of one of those interns we have running around the DW offices — but we plum forgot to let y’all know that July 1 was Bobby Bonilla Day.

(It also marked the halfway mark of 2019, so get those Christmas lists ready!)

If you don’t know about Bobby Bonilla Day, you should. Every July 1, the New York Mets put a check in the mail to Bonilla for $1.19 large. Very large. As in million.

Bobby hasn’t played for the Mets since 1999 and is 56 years old now, but that doesn’t stop him from waiting for the mailman when July rolls around. In 2000, the Mets bought out Bonilla’s contract, which was worth $5.9 million at the time. But instead of just writing the check, they negotiated a “deal” that they would send Bonilla almost $1.2 million every year for 25 years, starting in 2011. They rolled in 8 percent interest, but that was fine with them. They figured they could make that back because their financial guy was making a killing in a stock market and this guy was telling them about double-digits returns on their investments.

A guy named Bernie Madoff. What could possibly go wrong?!?!

So the Mets will end up paying Bonilla almost $30 million and could have gotten out for $6 million 20 years ago.

Stupid contracts aren’t the exclusive rights of the Mets. Believe it or not, they aren’t the only team still paying Bonilla (take a bow, Baltimore.)

And that’s a two-way street. Players get into stupid contracts as well. A couple of rising stars for the Atlanta Braves signed large contract extensions this year that in no way equals what their current career path shows their value might be.

Who knows what they will be worth in 2035 or if they will even be getting a check from a major league team by then.

But Bobby Bonilla will. On July 1.