Here are some random notes about the Mets.

They called up catcher Josh Thole, who will be with the team tonight in Colorado. He doesn’t have much power (one home run) and is still learning how to catch, after switching to that position from first base, but he’s been hitting in the minors. In Double A Binghamton this season, he batted .326, with a .392 OBP and a slugging percentage of .421. He had 26 doubles (which is tied for the league lead), and doesn’t stike out much (33 times), while walking 41 times in 102 games. And he drove in 46 runs.

The Mets aren’t planning on having many call-ups this year to save money, but, you know, they don’t have any money issues. They recently released this official statement: “For the love of god, stop mentioning Bernie Madoff!”

Carlos Beltran is going to begin a rehab assignment tomorrow, playing for the Brooklyn Cyclones. He’ll get to know what it feels like to play on a first-place team.

David Wright comes …

The ramshackle rotation the Mets are throwing out on the field these days looks more like a punchline than a major league starting staff. But a funny thing happened on the way to oblivion – the three pitchers whose main asset seems to be that they’re alive have performed amazingly well, while the two with “future” stamped on their foreheads haven’t fared so well.

The three “filler” guys – Nelson Figueroa, Pat Misch and Tim Redding – have put together five solid starts since joining the rotation. The Mets were scraping the bottom of the barrel with these guys, but they’ve all surprised everyone so far (and we’ll emphasize “so far” here). All three are veteran journeymen and Redding is the only one the Mets have anything invested in (with another year left on his contract, though Figueroa could be a long man or fifth starter candidate next year I suppose), but they’ve all filled in nicely.

Figueroa threw a gem yesterday, going seven innings while only allowing a run, and he struck …

Johan Santana was the 20th player the Mets have put on the disabled list this season, which puts the them in first place, passing the Reds. The team quickly organized a celebration and reunion that surpassed their recent 1969 Miracle Mets festivities. Even though last night’s game was played in Florida, the Mets snuck onto the field and staged a pre-game reunion to celebrate some of the greatest injuries in franchise history.

Jim Fregosi was the first player paraded out. To add insult to injury to the Nolan Ryan trade disaster, Fregosi broke his thumb fielding ground balls in spring training, ensuring his career with the Mets would be forgettable. Don Hahn and George Theodore were next, representing the collision of ‘73. Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron were right behind them, honoring the collision of ‘05. And there was Felix Millan, who was body slammed to the ground by Pirate Ed Ott, ending the second baseman’s major league career. As a tribute to Met head injuries, Mike Piazza and Jon …

Fred Wilpon figuratively gave Mets fans everywhere the finger with this recent comment: “Am I going to bring Omar back next year? Absolutely. That’s a fact.” Then it was Omar Minaya’s turn to flip the fans the bird: “Jerry is my guy. We work well together.” Meanwhile, on the field, Jerry Manuel called for a hit-and-run in the bottom of the ninth, down by two, no outs and two strikes on Jeff Francoeur, which led to a game-ending unassisted triple play. The last time that happened was 1927 when the Tigers did it to the Indians. The only reason the Mets weren’t involved was because they didn’t exist yet. And the only surprising thing about the game-ending play yesterday was that it took until the end of August for it to happen to the them.

Every decision the Mets make, on and off the field, is wrong. So here’s what they should do: Pull a George Costanza. What Jerry Seinfeld told his friend could easily apply to the …

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 …

The Mets surprised everyone last night by beating the Braves, 9-4, after falling behind, 4-0. And Oliver Perez was pitching, too. How about that? The big news was the record-setting fourth inning, when the offense exploded for eight runs on a franchise-record 10 hits. It usually takes the Mets eight games to score eight runs. Perez (who was his usual self – five innings, four runs) was matched up against could-have-been-Met Derek Lowe. The Braves’ ace was sweating and huffing-and-puffing so much, he looked like he was going to have a heart attack right there on the mound. His face was so red, I thought I was looking at Tom Coughlin out there.

The fourth inning lasted so long that my wife watched the Mets score four runs, put my daughter to bed, read her a story and was back in time to watch them score the last two (yes, I still subject my family to the trauma of watching the Mets). The Mets sent 13 batters …

“I feel like I have to protect my teammates. You can call that whatever you want. We’re in it together.” – Johan Santana

Giants pitcher Matt Cain may not have thrown at David Wright’s head intentionally, but the fact is he hit him. And when Santana retaliated, it was the right thing to do. If the pitch “just got away” from Cain, he shouldn’t be anywhere near Wright’s head in the first place, not if he can’t control his pitches. But that’s baseball. And retaliation is part of baseball, too. There are two schools of thought on how to go about it: One is to drill the pitcher; the other is to hit the opposing team’s star player. The Mets star third baseman was the one beaned, and the Giants, coincidentally, have a young star third baseman of their own. So Santana chose him. If he would have known that Cain would classlessly and sarcastically tip his hat to the booing fans when he left the game, …

There’s rampant speculation all over town that Omar Minaya and Jerry Manuel may be on their way out the door. Omar’s BFF, Adam Rubin, is reporting that John Ricco may be replacing Minaya when the season’s over (though Omar would probably move on to another position in the organization), while Newsday’s David Lennon ruminates on the possibility that the continuous sloppy play by the Mets could signal the demise of Manuel. So cue up the last five minutes of “Layla,” Goodfellas-style – will we see a frozen Omar dangling in a meat truck? Jerry “Roast Beef” slumped over in a pink Coup de Ville? We’ve already seen Tony “Funny like a clown, I amuse you?” Bernazard get it in the back of the head.

Minaya and Manuel got a “vote of confidence” earlier this season, but that’s due to expire as soon as the last pitch is thrown on October 4th. And with all that’s gone on since that declaration, it doesn’t mean anything anymore anyway. …

The .500-or-bust beards are being shaved off one by one. They’ve gone 2-6 since the “easy” part of their schedule commenced, which was going to springboard them into the wild card race. And their relievers are giving up grand slams left and right to lose games. This is the first time in five years that the Mets won’t be in contention the last two months of the season. So why bother watching? Well, here are 10 reasons to stay glued to the TV when the New York Mets are playing.

1. Daniel Murphy: The Mets are going to need a first baseman next season, and Murphy’s finally found a position that he can play and play well. And it happens to be first base. If he’s going to be the first baseman of the future, the team will need to find a power-hitting left fielder (Matt Holliday?) because even though he’s hitting cleanup right now, he’s no cleanup hitter. He’s been struggling at the plate this season after his …

Now that Mets fans have pretty much gone through the stages of grief for this season – anger, rage, denial, anger again, sniffing glue, laughter (well, that might have been from watching an episode of Coach), more rage, more denial and, finally, acceptance that this team can’t even walk down the dugout steps without injuring themselves – here are 10 Mets related things to do the rest of the summer without actually watching this putrid team.

1. Read the box scores from 1986 on retrosheet.org every morning instead of this season’s. You’ll like what you see a lot better.

2. Brush up on your Mets history by reading Peter Golenbock’s Amazin’: The Miraculous History of New York’s Most Beloved Baseball Team. It may get a few dates wrong and have some inaccuracies, but you’ll learn everything there is to know about your favorite team.

3. Bone up on obscure Mets like Joe Christopher, Hawk Taylor, Dave Marshall, Dave Schneck, Bill Sudakis, Pepe Mangual, Rick Sweet, Lou Thornton and Andy Tomberlin. Dazzle …

While watching the Mets this past weekend, I spent every game looking for a sign from God – well, maybe not God, but at least from Tug McGraw. I was looking for anything – no matter how little – to show me that there may be a miracle coming the last two months of the season for the Metsies. I looked on the field, in the batter’s box, on the pitcher’s mound, in the dugout, under my TV – everywhere and anywhere.

And on Friday, I thought I had it. After Angel Berroa grounded out on the first pitch he saw pinch-hitting with the bases loaded (I think the ball actually bounced in the dirt – it was a good pitch to hit if he were playing cricket) and Sean Green’s wild pitch cancelled out Daniel Murphy’s slick double play, Arizona third baseman Mark Reynolds dropped an easy pop-up with one out in the bottom of the ninth. That was it! The Mets are going to …