Bobby Bonilla ethnicity stems from the Caribbean island Puerto Rico. But the former baseball player was born and brought up in the state of New York with his three siblings.
The former New York Mets player Bobby Bonilla’s name has once again started getting attention. This all began because of Shohei Ohtani’s new deal with the Dodgers.
Recently, the Japanese baseball player Shohei Ohtani signed a mega deal of $700 million for ten years with the Dodgers. But he has agreed to defer $680 million until after the expiration of the contract.
In 2000, Bonilla agreed a similar deal with the New York Mets. The Mets agreed to buy out the remaining $5.9 million left on Bonilla’s contract. But instead of paying him the $5.9 million at the time, the Mets agreed to make annual payments of nearly $1.2 million for 25 years starting July 1, 2011.
This is also one of the reasons why July 1 is also known as “Bobby Bonilla Day.”
Bobby Bonilla Ethnicity: Former MLB Player’s Race & Origin
The former New York Mets player Bobby Bonilla comes from a Puerto Rican background. But he is through and through New Yorker.
Born and raised in the Bronx, Bonilla grew up in a large family with twin sisters and a brother. His father, Roberto Sr, worked as an electrician, and his mother, Regina, was a homemaker.
In an interview with the New York Times in 1991, Bonilla said he had a tough childhood growing up in South Bronx. The gang members had made the place difficult to live in.
Bonilla detailed an incident when he was out to buy groceries. He had only put his foot outside the doorstep when he heard gunshots and quickly went to his mother and told her she might’ve to sort out the groceries.
The former MLB player said he idolized his parents growing up. They had done a lot to fulfill his dream. Unfortunately, his parents didn’t stay together, but Bonilla had a good relationship with even his stepmother Ann.
Ann, his parents, siblings, uncles, aunts, and cousins were present the day when Bonilla was presented as a New York Mets player in 1991. In recent years, Bonilla has taken an active role in helping baseball in Puerto Rico.
In 2014, Bonilla, with many other Puerto Rican-origin baseball players, was part of the union to launch the summer league in Puerto Rico. The summer league was one of the ways to give Puerto Rican teenagers more chances to break into the MLB.
Bobby Bonilla Wife And Kids
Bobby Bonilla almost had a perfect love story before the wretched divorce in 2009. Bonilla tied the knot to his high school sweetheart, Madiglia “Millie” Bonilla, in the late 1980s.
The couple went on to have two kids, Brandon and Danielle. In many of his past interviews, Bobby also said his Millie played a huge role in keeping his head straight, but it looks like after retirement, things went downhill.
The former couple entered a bitter court battle, with the judge ordering Bobby to split his holdings with her. Millie accused Bobby of holding out.
But by the time 2011 rolled around, it looked like everything was sorted as Bobby started to get paid his deferred salary from the New York Mets.
Today, Bobby is married to Christina Solomon-Bonilla, and they also share a son named Roman Solomon. Bobby’s oldest child, Brandon, followed in his footsteps.
Born on October 21, 1993, Brandon played college baseball for Grand Canyon University and later joined the Baltimore Orioles organization. He was the Orioles 25th round selection in 2014.
But unlike his father, Brandon failed to crave a career in the major leagues. The last we heard of Brandon playing was in the New York-Pennsylvania League in 2018 for the Aberdeen IronBirds.
Bobby and his family have kept themselves away from social media. But Bonilla has given a few interviews in the past few years, including one to the CBS News in 2017.
