In order to forget all about the 2009 season, the Mets will be paying tribute to the greatest underdog in American professional sports: The 1969 New York Mets. An on-field reunion of the team will take place before their game against Philadelphia on Saturday night. Everybody’s seen the highlights from that memorable World Series – the Tommie Agee and Ron Swoboda catches, the Cleon Jones shoe polish play, the J.C. Martin running inside the baseline play, Bobby Pfeil sitting around wondering why nobody will let him play – but here are some little-known (or maybe not-so-little-known) facts and stats about the 1969 season:

The Mets battled and overtook the Cubs to win the division, but when all was said and done, the race turned out to be a romp – the Mets won the NL East by eight games, finishing with a 100-62 record. A 45-18 August/September/October did the trick. The team had a winning record against every team in the National League except Houston (2-10) and Cincinnati (6-6). They …

Scoring eight runs in one inning one night and then giving up eight runs in one inning the next night can, of course, only happen to the Mets. Last night’s 15-2 nightmare doesn’t deserve a routine recap or analysis. Instead, we’ll get all touchy-feely with a quiz about how the game made us feel.

1. Watching Bobby Parnell struggle through three innings while giving up nine runs made me want to:

    a) Throw myself into a cage filled with angry raccoons and let them rip me to shreds.

    b) Bludgeon myself with a commemorative Roger Cedeno bobblehead.

    c) All of the above.

2. Watching Luis Castillo lazily not cover second base on a potential inning-ending force out, which would have stopped the Braves at three runs instead of eight, made me want to:

    a) Go on a drinking binge with Mr. Met and not stop until we pass out in Butch Huskey’s backyard wearing nothing but orange Rusty Staub wigs and a T-shirt that says “I went on a bender …