COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

JETS 27, GIANTS 25 Oh, what a night! Sure it was preseason, but don't tell that to the New York Jets, who put on one heck of a show in their annual end of summer clash with the New York Giants. Coming into the game, the Jets needed to give Mark Sanchez some much needed reps, and in return, receive some positive results after last week's debacle in Baltimore; positive results are exactly what they got and more. Unlike last week when Sanchez looked lost in the world of Ray Lewis and the blitz-happy Baltimore Ravens defense, Sanchez withstood the blitz tonight from the Gia nts and delivered a veteran-like performance, going 13-for-20 for 149 yards and a touchdown. In the second quarter, with the Giants on top 13-7, the Jets had the ball at their own 38 yard line facing a second and 10. Sanchez rolled to his left, avoided the pass rush and drilled the football to a wide open Chansi Stuckey for a 29-yard gain to the Giants 31 yard line. Two plays, later, Sanchez rolled right i...

Author Erin Arvediund writes in her tell-all book about the Bernie Madoff scandal that the New York Mets lost $700 million in the scandal; she concludes that the debt may be so steep that Fred and Jeff Wilpon may be forced to sell the franchise in the next year. The Mets, as usual, denied the claim, belittling Ms. Avediund's knowledge of the situation: "The author of the book has no knowledge or facts related to the Mets business operations and finances." Luckily for Ms. Arvediund, Omar Minaya didn't chastise her for lobbying for a job with the Mets organization as he did last month with N.Y. Daily News reporter Adam Rubin, since that seems to be the prefered way the Mets front office defends itself. Read Story . If the Mets should sell, it might be a boon for the franchise. The Wilpons have sunk the Mets into irrelevancy by keeping Minaya and manager Jerry Manuel for the 2010 season. They have also placed Mets history into the shadows by building a stadium dedicated ...

The ineviateble is now a reality. Mark Sanchez has been named the New York Jets starting quarterback by coach Rex Ryan this afternoon, putting an end to the so-called quarterback competition that took place this summer. Sanchez did battle with Kellen Clemens for the starting job this summer, and if you look at the Jets two pre-season games, it is clear that there is no right decision here. Sanchez was awful for the Jets on Monday Night in Baltimore throwing a pick for a touchdown, and almost throwing another pick six to Ray Lewis. Clemens on the other hand was equally bad, throwing an interception for a touchdown on his first pass of the night, and really never grabbed the bull by the horns to take this job, something that is quite disturbing to see from a guy who has 4 years of NFL experience under his belt. Even though Ryan tried to tell the Jets beat reporters that this was entirely his decision, it is clear that Sanchez was going to be the starter, unless Clemens suddenly morphed i...

Johan Santana's 2009 season is over. WFAN and SNY insider Jon Heyman reports that the Mets ace left hander will miss the rest of the season, as he will have autroscopic surgery performed on his left elbow to remove bone fragments in the arm. It was feared that Santana would need Tommy John's Surgery, which would have required total reconstruction of his elbow and the likelihood that Santana would not pitch again until 2011. Now Santana can clean up his arm, get a longer off-season and be ready to go come Februrary 2010. Santana joins 12 other Mets who are missing significant time this year due to injury, and he joins Alex Cora, Jon Niese, Jose Reyes and Carlos Delgado as players who will miss the rest of the 2009 season. READ JON HEYMAN!

RAVENS 24 JETS 23 This much is clear about the Jets quarterback competition: The Jets still don't have an answer who will be the starter on opening day in Houston. That's bad news for any team. It is rare for the second pre-season game to have any meaning at all, but this one had a lot of meaning for the Rex Ryan, who was hoping to have a better gauge in the Mark Sanchez vs. Kellen Clemens battle; all he got was garbage from his two QB's. Sanchez was pretty awful in his first real test against a superior defense. On the second play of the game, Sanchez was driven into the ground by Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis, and, in shear panic, Sanchez threw the ball into the hands of Haloti Ngata who rumbled untouched into the end zone for a touchdown. Sanchez had the look of the proverbial deer in the headlights as the Ravens threw everything, including the kitchen sink, at the USC product. In fact, Sanchez was even smacked in the head on a fumble that he caused, leading Ryan to pull h...

Johan Santana is the latest member of the Mets to join the injury list. After another embarassing loss to the Philadelphia Phillies, Mets manager Jerry Manuel announced to the media that Santana will miss his next start due to pain in his left elbow. Santana has not thrown between starts since the All Star break, signaling that something has been wrong with the Mets ace. Santana has not been terrible since the break, going 3-2 in that time span, but he had only one dominating start, 7-0 win over the Rockies on July 30. It is unknown whether Santana will start on Wednesday in Florida.

BEARS 17 GIANTS 3 Keep telling yourselves, Giants fans, that it is only pre-season. Even though it was only the second pre-season game of the year, and there are still three weeks left until the start of the regular season, the Giants have issues. Big Blue entered tonight's game against the Chicago Bears with nine players on the DL. Cornerbacks Kenny Phillips and Aaron Ross, defensive linemen Rocky Bernard and Chirs Canty, linebacker and leader Antonio Pierce and Michael Boley all were inactive on the Giants starting defense, while offensive linemen Chris Snee and Rich Seubert were also out with injuiries. With a defense already wounded, Jay Cutler and the Chicago Bears took full advantage, scoring on each of their three possessions in the first quarter to shock the Giants 17-3 Saturday night. The Bears went right through the Giants defense like a knife through butter as Cutler slung the football all over the field. He was 8 of 13 for 121 yards and a touchdown in a quarter and a ha...

Even though it was like pulling teeth, Mets owners Fred and Jeff Wilpon finally did the right thing. Instead of pretending that the history of the New York Mets didn't exist for the better part of the 2009 season, merely visit Citi Field to find out, the owners finally honored the 1969 World Champion Mets at Citi Field Saturday night. It has been 40 years since the Miracle Mets shocked the world by beating the Baltimore Orioles in five games of that year's October Classic. The Mets faithful warmly welcomed back Tom Seaver, Jerry Koosman, Dave Kingman, Yogi Berra, Jerry Grote, Duffy Dyer, Ron Swoboda, and, yes, Nolan Ryan; these players were the highlights admist 21 former Met players and coaches invited to attend the event. The Wilpons seem to understand that Met fans want to see more of Mets history at Citi Field, and not the Brookyln Dodgers, i.e. the Jackie Robinson Rotunda at the front of the building. The Mets recently put the team's championship banners back in the ou...

RED SOX 14 YANKEES 1 This time the Yankees couldn't score 20 runs to make up the difference. For the second straight game, Yankee pitching got tattooed by the Boston Red Sox offense. The Sox pounded out seven runs in the initial two innings of the game off starter A.J. Burnett, by far his worst performace of the 2009 season. With two on and two out in the bottom of the first, David Ortiz doubled to left to drive home Dustin Pedroia and Victor Martinez to make it 2-0 Boston. Jayson Bay followed that with single to shallow center to drive in Ortiz, making it 3-0. In the second inning, Alex Gonzalez got things started with a solo homer over the Green Monster, 4-0. Later, Burnett walked Pedroia and Martinez to set up Kevin Youklis for the biggest play of the game. Youklis blasted a three run shot over the monster to give Boston a 7-0 lead. Youklis would homer again in the sixth inning, a two run blast, to give Boston a 12-0. Box Score. The Yankees need to be concerned about their pitc...

After a very long and frustrating trial period that included battles between Plaxico Burress' attonrey Benjamin Brafman and an old school N.Y. District Attorney, who had it out for both Burress and teammate Antonio Pierce, Burress finally accepted a plea bargin that will put him behind bars for two years. If he had not pleaded guilty, the former Giants receiver would have faced 3 1/2 years in prison if he was found guilty of possessing an illegal firearm in a New York City nightclub last November. Burress will be sentenced to prison on September 22, ultimately putting an end to any speculation that Burress would find a way to avoid sentencing this fall that would have allowed him to play with a football team this year. Instead Burress may not see the field of play again until 2011 at the earliest. The Super Bowl XLII hero will be pushing 35 years old when he comes out of jail, and it is fair to speculate that he professional football career might be over. Spending that much time a...

In what has to be Rex Ryan's dumbest move since being named head coach of the New York Jets, the boisterous head coach reiterated that he is not afraid of Patriots coach Bill Belichick and the New England Patriots. “You don’t line up and beat a Bill Belichick -coached team by tiptoeing in there. We’re going to be ourselves and I’m going to be myself,” he said. “How much more motivation are they going to get by putting a quote from me on the wall, saying I believe in my football team and I’m not going to be intimidated by a coach or anyone else? “If that’s where you’re going to draw motivation from, hell, we’ll probably kick your (butt).” YAHOO SPORTS. These are some pretty strong statements coming from a man who has yet to coach a game for the Jets. Last time anyone checked, Belichick has three Super Bowl rings to his credit as a head coach, and he has Tom Brady as his quarterback. What does Ryan have? The last thing in the world Ryan should be doing is providing his opponents bu...

Just when football fans thought Brett Favre meant it when he said two weeks ago that he would stay retired, Favre, as in the past year, pulled the rug out from underneath the public's not unjustified assumptions. Favre changed his mind, again, and will suit up in purple and gold this season, as he seeks revenge on the Green Bay Packers as the starting quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings. There were rumblings on Monday that Favre would consider changing his mind again, and play but the sources were unnamed. Then, at high noon this afternoon, it was announced that Favre had signed with Minnesota. ESPN story. Favre is expected to partake in team workouts immediately. According to WFAN radio in New York, Favre could be ready to start for Minnesota on Friday when the team plays host to the Kansas City Chiefs in pre-season action. The Vikings will face Favre's former team, the Packers, on October 5 on Monday Night Football in Minnesota. The two teams will meet again later on Novemb...

Mark Sanchez's impressive outing on Friday night has earned the rookie quarterback his first NFL start, albeit a pre-season game, when the Jets play again in eight days against the Baltimore Ravens in Baltimore. Sanchez out played bumbling Kellen Clemens in the Jets 23-20 loss to the Rams the other night. The game will be nationally televised on ESPN, so this is a chance for Sanchez to prove that the Jets didn't gamble too much when the traded up to get him at number five in the draft this April.

David Wright has left the Hostpital for Special Surgery after suffering a concussion from a beaning by San Francisco Giants pithcer Matt Cain in Saturday's 5-4 Giants victory. Early in the game, with Wright at bat, Cain's 94 mph fastball got away from him, and smacked Wright right in the head knocking him to the ground. Wright was face first on the ground for several minutes, before the Mets medical staff peeled him off of the field. It is not known as to when Wright will play again for the Mets, but it just adds to what has been a frustrating year for the Mets, where all of the Mets opening day players are on the DL for one severe injury after another.

RAMS 23 JETS 20 It was hard to discern anything substantial from tonight's preseason opener for the New York Jets. The handful of Jet fans that showed up for the game got a brief glimpse at the quarterback battle between Kellen Clemens and Mark Sanchez, and Sanchez was clearly the more impressive of the two. Even though he played only one series, Sanchez led the Jets starting offense to their only touchdown in the first half of the exhibition game. On his first play, Sanchez connected with David Clowney down the sideline for a 48 yard completion that moved the Jets from their own five yard line to the Rams 45; the pass elicited shock and awe from the Jets faithful. Sanchez finished the drive 3 for 4 for 88 yards; however, the biggest connection in the game was thrown by Eric Ainge to David Clowney for a 50 yard touchdown, giving the Jets a brief 20 to 16 lead. As for Clemens, he was awful in two series. He was hurried, sacked, and even stripped of the football in the first quart...

Thus far this summer, rookie quarterback Mark Sanchez appears to have the upper hand on four year veteran Kellen Clemens. Sanchez has dazzled with his poise and arm this summer. In 11 on 11 drills on Saturday, Sanchez hit Jerricho Cotchery on a 40 yard pass for a touchdown. According to several reports, Sanchez went 10 for 19 with two touchdowns and one interception. Meanwhile, Clemens struggled; he went 4 for 12 with another interception; Clemens now has seven picks in 11 on 11 drills compared to Sanchez's three. "He did a great job of leading us," Cotchery said. "I think the best thing he did was establish our tempo as an offense. When you establish our tempo like we did today, you put a lot of pressure on the defense. You saw the way we were able to go down off the two-minute drill today." Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/football/jets/2009/08/08/2009-08-08_sanchez.html#ixzz0NiZKQ3Ic

No suprises here: David Ortiz, speaking out for the first time since allegations arose a week ago that he used steroids in 2003, denied any knowledge that he utilized the illegal drug. Ortiz claimed he talked to the player's union in 2004 and was never told he had tested positive for steroids. Ortiz used the word "confused" several times during the press conference. So, like his former teammate Manny Ramirez and many other users, Ortiz has denied taking steroids, even though proofs testify otherwise.

YANKEES 2 RED SOX 0 15 INNINGS This is what baseball is all about: Two great teams battling it out, hour after hour, inning after inning, batter after batter, an exquisite game played out on a chessboard of grass. Typical of this legendary series between the Yankees and Red Sox, this one will go down as one of the classic confrontations of all time. For 15 innings, the two heavyweight teams duked it out scoreless for the entire night. Certainly, there were opportunites, but neither team could take advantage of scoring chances; for example, i n the bottom of the ninth, with Hideki Matsui and Alex Rodriguez on base with two out, and Jorge Posada strolling to the plate, David Bard reeled back and struck out the powerful Posada swinging, ending the threat. Later, in the bottom of the tenth with Eric Hinske on base and Derek Jeter at bat with two out, Red Sox manager Terry Francona makes a brilliant move. He removes his set up man, Ramon Ramirez, in favor of closer Jonathan Papelbon. Jeter...

PADRES 6 METS 2 Who cares how the Mets got a 2-0 lead in this game, and who cares that they held a 2-1 lead going into the ninth inning. This game was all about the bottom of the ninth and Mets closer Francisco Rodriguez. The Mets $36 million man continued to struggle yet again, blowing his second straight save, and sixth blown save of the season. After K-Rod walked some guy named Kyle Blanks, who has shot blanks all year for San Diego with his .212 batting average, Rodriguez gave up a game tying double to Will Venable, and Blanks scored on a controversial play at the plate. Blanks appeared to be out in video replays, but that doesn't matter in baseball; he was called safe and so safe he is. Then, K-Rod imploded. He walked Henri Blanco and, for some strange reason, intentionally walked Oscar Salazar to put the Mets in a no-win situation: bases loaded and nobody out. It's just what the doctor ordered. The Mets decided that it would be the brilliant idea to bring Angel Pagan int...

YANK EES 13 RED SOX 6 Is there anyone who can stop the Yankees in the American League? Right now it doesn't look like it. The Yankees exorcised their demons tonight in the Bronx, driving out the evil spell of the hated Boston Red Sox 13-6, and ending an eight game losing streak to Boston in this season. The Yankee bats were hotter than the weather as they belted four homers and put up an eight run fourth inning to all but seal the game. The offensive barrage began in the third inning when Johnny Damon homered to right off John Smoltz to tie the game at one. After the Red Sox took a 3-1 lead on a Casey Kotchman two run homer, the Yankees went ballistic in the fourth. Jorge Posada led with a double to right; Robinson Cano then drove in Posada with a single to shallow center field to move the Yankees to within one, 3-2. After a Nick Swisher walk, Melky Cabrera cracked a three run homer to right to give the Yankees a 5-3 lead. But that was not all; things got even worse for Smoltz. He...

Super Bowl XLII MVP Eli Manning is a rich, rich man tonight. The Giants have finalized a six year $97.5 million deal with Manning that will pay him $15 million a season. Manning is also guaranteed to make more than $35 million in the contract; this is by far one of the richest contracts in the NFL. Only Julius Peppers of the Carolina Panthers ($16.7 mil.) and Carson Palmer of the Cincinnati Bengals ($16.1 mil.) make more money per season than Manning. Not even Eli's brother Peyton, nor Tom Brady, make as much as Eli will be making into the foreseeable future. This has been a topic of discussion for the Giants for a few months, and now it is finally a fait accompli. There are those who will question the deal since Manning had a bad second half to the 2008 season that concluded with a 23-11 loss to the Philadelphia Eagles in the second round of the playoffs. However, Manning is a Super Bowl MVP. Without his heroics in the 2007/2008 playoffs, the Giants would never have sniffed a Supe...

Plaxico Burress has been indicted by a N.Y.C. Grand Jury this afternoon on two counts of criminal possession of a weapon and one count of reckless endangerment. Last November, Burress was at a night club with teammate Antonio Pierce, when the former Giants receiver shot himself in the leg when his gun fell out of his pants. Burress was not licensed for the gun in New York; in fact, his Florida permit for the weapon had expired. Burress is still facing up to 3 1/2 years in prison if he is charged. However, the trial may not take place until next February or March, meaning Burress could conceivably play for a team this season, if someone wants to take him, of course. Story. If there is any good news coming out of the story, it is the fact that Pierce was not indicted for his role in the incident; therefore, the linebacker can rejoin his teammates in Albany for training camp without any worries of missing time with the Giants this season.