The Mets aren’t too happy with Brad Thompson.

The mild-mannered Cardinals pitcher sent Mets star David Wright sprawling with a runaway pitch Wednesday afternoon. This brushback came after Mets reliever Nelson Figuerora hit Albert Pujols in the wrist with a pitch.

Here was some of the reaction, as reported by Newsday and the New York Daily News:

Wright: “I thought in the back of my mind that somebody might get hit, but when you go up there you expect to get hit in the back. When it starts coming up there, you can get somebody seriously injured. I bet if he had to hit he wouldn’t have thrown it up there. It’s one of the things where you understand it’s part of the game, but you do it the right way. You hit a guy in the butt, hit a guy in the back, you don’t start going after the head.”

Gary Sheffield: “That’s uncalled for because you can do serious damage to somebody with a baseball. Throwing 90 mph, you can do a lot of damage. We didn’t try to hit Pujols, and unfortunately, they probably felt we did, and that is why they retaliated.”

Jeff Francoeur: “I thought it was bush league. When you start throwing at a guy’s head, you can mess his career up. I thought that was pretty bush.”

Sheffield admonished Thompson went he stepped into the batter’s box, but nothing further happened. Wright didn’t charge the mound or visit the Cards clubhouse after the game.

Brad insisted he wasn’t head hunting and Cards manager Tony La Russa reiterated his dislike of head-high pitches after the game.

Still, this old rivalry heated up for a day.

MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

Questions to ponder while wondering why the Cardinals offense called in sick Wednesday afternoon:

• Isn’t Matt Holliday supposed to protect Pujols?  Where was the bodyguard in this game?
• Other than the friends and relatives of the young Pirates players, who is coming to Pittsburgh to watch this weekend series?
• Will Mets GM Omar Minaya get a chance to fix the mess he created in Queens?
• Are the days of small market teams outsmarting big market teams over?
• Shouldn’t NFL teams be more careful about which players they take at the top of the draft?
• Speaking of that, is this the year Vince Young pulls himself together?

HERE COME THE CUBS?

Lou Piniella talks up his squad — and heart attacks — with ESPN.

Lou doesn’t like all the chatter about the “Billy Goat Curse” keeping his franchise down. And he sure didn’t appreciate the Marlins taunting his team with a goat.

QUIPS ‘R US

Here is what some of America’s leading sports pundits have been writing:

Rick Reilly, ESPN.com: “There are two major college football coaches in L.A.: Pete Carroll at USC and Rick Neuheisel at UCLA. One of them is bouncy and beloved by his players. Once tagged as a complete failure, he’s made his way back to the top ranks. He’s fun and feisty, cocky and confident, always sprinting hither and yon and pointing fingers in maybe a few too many faces. He’s a proven winner, a stadium-filler, a leader people make drum circles around. The other is Pete Carroll.”

Dan Daly, Washington Times: “Here’s something you don’t see every day - or every decade, for that matter. During his second nine Friday in the Buick, John Daly had a bogey, a double bogey, a triple bogey, a quadruple bogey and a quintuple bogey. After which he probably needed a sextuple bypass.”

Jeff Schultz, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “Remember the XFL? They thought they had the right formula. Significant financial backing (NBC and Vince McMahon’s WWF-stuffed bank account). Rowdy, obnoxious and cheap-shot players. Cameras and microphones in the huddles. Teams named Rage, Hitmen and Maniax! A scrum, not a coin flip, to determine the opening kickoff. Even double-smut cheerleaders. It folded after one year. Remember the USFL? They thought they had the right formula. Fat-wallet owners (Donald Trump, Alfred Taubman). Teams in major markets. Stars stolen from either the NFL or college (Herschel Walker, Jim Kelly, Steve Young). It lasted three seasons and lost $163 million — and $163 million was a lot of money back in 1985. Remember the Arena Football League? Apparently not. It took a year off and still nobody cared. So it went bankrupt this week. I’ve never seen an entire league fall over and make so little noise. The United Football League is starting up in October. I’ve got some advice for Michael Vick: Stay away.”

MEGAPHONE

“He does things, and he reacts to things, and he’s does it in a very comical way, but he’s just being himself. You watch Manny when he walks to the plate. I mean, I used to watch how he operated in Boston, and he would be looking at something in the upper deck. I would think to myself, ‘What is he doing?’ You just knew his wife wouldn’t be sitting way up there, but he would be like, ‘Oh, la-de-da-de-da,’ and here he would be with the bases loaded and the game on the line.”

Brewers bench coach Willie Randolph, to FanHouse, on Manny Ramirez.