Over at Amazin’ Avenue, James Kannengieser points out at the N.Y. Post has presented as news the fact that the Mets owe Bobby Bonilla deferred salary through 2035 — something that has been public knowledge for years.

Here’s my conspiracy theory, based on nothing but anecdotal evidence: In these tough times for the newspaper industry, stories about the Mets owing Bobby Bonilla a ton of money are practically guaranteed to go viral, racking up pageviews as the few remaining souls that somehow didn’t know how the Mets owe Bobby Bonilla a ton of money giggle and forward them around to their friends and family with an “OMG LOL.”

I figure this because nearly every time this great revelation “breaks,” one of my friends or family members forwards me the article with an “OMG LOL.”

So probably some enterprising Post editor guessed that enough time had passed since the last paper got the big scoop on how the Mets still owe Bobby Bonilla a ton of money until long after the end of the Mayan calendar or peak oil or the Singularity or whatever doomsday scenario you espouse, and knew that with precious little effort his paper could reap the thousands of pageviews guaranteed by a tragically unoriginal news item on a bit of whimsy pertaining to the Mets’ financial woes.