COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Should Met fans get excited, or should they roll their eyes? Depends on who you ask, I guess, but the New York Mets have a new minority owner, David Einhorn who is the President of Greenlight Capital Inc., and a 10% owner in Microsoft , who tried to get the head of Microsoft, Scott Ballmer canned, when he said Microft ran a "Charlie Brown operation." Well, Mr. Einhorn, welcome to the Mickey Mouse operation of Major League Baseball! Einhorn, a former winner of the 2006 World Series of Poker, agreed to a 20-25 % stake in the Mets, worth $200 million. It was initially believed that the Mets were shopping 49 % of the team as late as Monday, but those views have obviously changed. According to WFAN and SI reporter Jon Heyman, Einhorn could take full control of the Mets, if the Wilpon's are forced to leave the franchise due to enormous financial losses or if they lose their case to Irving Pichard.

Fred Wilpon likes to divulge himself to the press, doesn't he? A day after a report in the New Yorker magazine revealed that Wilpon thinks very little about his baseball team, Tom Verducci of Sport Illustrated has revealed new insights in the Wilpon/Bernie Madoff fiasco. According to Verducci, Wilpon says that the fledging franchise is "bleeding cash" and stands to lose up to $70 million this season alone. The Mets are already up for more than $600 million in debt over operating costs of the franchise, Citi Field and SNY, plus a $1 billion law suit from Bernie Madoff trustee Irving Pichard. Here is an exerpt from Verducci's story: " Though the Mets will have about $64 million in salaries coming off the books after this season (from a $142 million total), they will not put much, if any, of that money back into the major league payroll. The Mets essentially have forfeited the resource advantages of playing in the country's biggest market with a new ballpark...

More evidence that Fred Wilpon is one of the worst owners in the history of sports revealed itself in an issue of The New Yorker magazine. The article details Fred Wilpon's time as owner of the team. Most people would expect Wilpon to delve deeply into his relations with Bernie Madoff, the impending lawsuit, and near bankruptcy, but the owner says that he never knew about Madoff's schemes. That's disappointing, but the owner formally dubbed by Met fans as Fred Coupon - for being el cheapo - didn't keep quiet on his star players; in fact, he ripped into David Wright, and free agents Jose Reyes and Carlos Beltran. When talking about Reyes, Wilpon said: “He thinks he’s going to get Carl Crawford money,” Wilpon said, referring to the Red Sox’ signing of the former Tampa Bay player to a seven-year, $142-million contract. “He’s had everything wrong with him,” Wilpon said of Reyes. “He won’t get it.” For David Wright, Wilpon offered this message: “He’s pressing,” Wilpon said. ...

Former Mets catcher and World Series Champion Gary Carter is now in a fight for his life. An MRI on Friday revealed that Carter has four small tumors inside of his brain, but doctors are not sure if they are malignant. He will have further research done on the tumors later this week. According to reports, the Hall of Famer has complained of headaches and forgetfulness. This is a terrible news. Carter is one of the faces of the Mets franchise, and also the lone face of the Montreal Expos. In 1985, Carter came over to New York from Montreal and helped ignite the turnaround that led to the Mets 1986 World Championship. Carter has drawn the ire of the Wilpon family in recent years with consistent requests to manage the team when they were tossing around the idea of firing both Willie Randolph and Jerry Manuel. Carter has managed on the minor league level, but has yet to get that chance in the majors. Hopefully he can get through this moment in his life and get that opportunity one day.

METS 2 YANKEES 1 If you believe that the world will end May 21, then Firday night might have been a sign as the New York Mets beat the Yankees 2-1 in the Bronx to take the first game of the 2011 Subway Series. R.A. Dickey, who has struggled all year with his command led the way for the Mets, with a six strong innings, giving up only four hits and a run, which was a solo shot by Mark Teixeria. However the story of the day has to be the Mets bullpen. Mike O'Connor, Jason Isringhausen, and Francisco Rodriguez combined to shut down the Yankees in order for the final three innings to record the Mets victory. Trailing 1-0 in the fourth, the Mets tied the game on a single by Justin Turner to record his 14 RBI of the season. Turner has been really good for the Mets. He's hitting .364 on the year and went 3-for-4 tonight. The Mets than took the lead in the sixth on a Dan Murphy homerun that silenced Yankee Stadium for the rest of the evening. Freddy Garcia was ok for the Yankees. He on...

Here we go again! The Subway Series is back in New York this weekend, only this time with a bit of a different twist. In years' past we have grown accustomed to either the Yankees soaring above the competition, while the Mets floundered, or we have seen the days when both teams were true contenders for a world championship. This year, however, the Subway Series will feature two struggling ball clubs, both who are desperately looking to find their identity. Granted the Mets problems are 10x bigger than anything the Yankees can come up with; from the bankruptcy of the Wilpon, a pending $1 billion lawsuit hanging over their heads, to countless injuries and misfortune to their "stars" on the field, the Mets have been every bit the disaster that people feared they would be entering the season. Yet, the Mets are only two games under .500 at 21-22, even though it feels more like 11-32. The Mets have beaten up on the Nationals and Astros of the world, in spite of the fact that th...

Rays 6 Yankees 5 The struggling Bronx Bombers are turning into the Bronx Bumblers judging by their 6-5 defeat at the hands of the Tampa Bay Rays thus dropping New York to a game over .500 (20-19) and three back in the standings. The loss is the Yankees sixth straight. Once again the Yankees showed little in the way of offense. The Bombers grabbed a 5-1 lead on Tampa Bay mostly due to a three run home run by Curtis Granderson, the only hot hitter in in the Yankees lineup. The Yankees didn't get any hits from Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeria and Alex Rodriguez. Jorge Posada was once again out of the lineup. It was A.J. Burnett 's game to lose, and well, he lost it. Given that 5-1 lead, all Burnett had to do was get through the sixth inning, and he couldn't do it. First he gave up a two run shot to Sam Fuld to cut the Yankee lead to 5-3. Then Matt Joyce singled up the middle to drive in Evan Longoria to cut the Yankee lead to one run. Finally, B.J. Upton, who is having a great year ...

Well, Mets fans, not even a solid road trip is enough to take away the stench of another injury disaster for the Metropolitans. Around 5 p.m. Monday, the Mets announced that David Wright will miss significant time with a stress fracture in his lower back. Wright went for an exam in the morning revealing the fracture near the spine, and as a precaution, the Mets plan to put him on the DL. Wright apparently injured the back a month ago, when he tried to dive and tag out Astros first baseman Carlos Lee on a slide to third. Replacing Wright will be nearly impossible. They will mix and match with Willie Harris, Justin Turner and Dan Murphy in the interim, but, without Wright and Ike Davis who also is on the DL, the Mets offense has no punch. There is no clear time table for Wright's return.

RED SOX 7 YANKEES 5 The troubled New York Yankees still can't get out of their own way as they were swept out of the Bronx by the hated Boston Red Sox, who reached .500 for the first time this year. With the loss, the Yankees stand at 20-18, two games behind Tampa Bay in the AL East, and a game behind Detroit for the Wild Card. Yet that doesn't even begin to describe the problems with the Bronx Bombers. The Yankees are getting old, they can't hit a baseball if their lives depended on it, and Brian Cashman finds himself in a tough position where he can't replace the likes of Jorge Posada, Derek Jeter, and Nick Swisher because of their incredibly large contracts. As great as Posada and Jeter have been, both are getting long in the tooth and can't deliver the way they used to. That doesn't mean they won't get an occasional big hit, but with these two struggling, it makes things very difficult for the Yankees. Maybe the Steinbrenner family was right in not wanti...

Jorge Posada's tenure with the New York Yankees might be close to over according to Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal . Rosenthal reported during the broadcast of Saturday night's Yankees/Red Sox game that Posada pulled himself out of the lineup when he learned that he was batting ninth in the order. Numerous reports say that the catcher turned DH felt insulted by the batting lineup and asked Joe Girardi to remove him from the lineup totally. Posada has struggled all year hitting .167 and has show next to no life in his bat. on Fox Sports, Rosenthal speculated that the Yankees could call up Jesus Montero if Posada continues to refuse to play in Girardi's lineup. The Yankees in turn could either release Posada, or he could retire.

METS 6 ASTROS 4 Believe it or not: the Mets are only two games under .500 at 18-20. For a team that has been playing at death's door since spring training, the Metropolitans have looked pretty good this past week, granted it is coming via the horrible Astros and the now slumping Rockies. Nonetheless, the Mets found a way to erase a 4-0 deficit to Houston to beat the Astros 6-4 at Minute Maid Park, Friday night. Jason Bay got the ball rolling for the Metropolitans with a home run to left, his second of the year, pulling the slumping hitter's average to .217. However, the most interesting aspect of the Mets win was that Fernando Martinez hit a two run homer to pull New York to within 4-3. Martinez, who has been demoted to triple-A for years because of a rash of injuries that have plagued his career, has never shown the great potential that everyone expected of him when he was a rookie. He was once the prize of the Mets farm system but now almost forgotten. Nevertheless, with the ...

RED SOX 5 YANKEES 4 So the Yankees lost a game to the Boston Red Sox . That is not the big story Friday night; the bigger story is that the Bronx Bombers continue to struggle in every facet of the game. Losers of three in a row and seven of their last ten, the Yankees have fallen out of first place in the AL East, now trailing the suddenly surging Tampa Bay Rays by two games. Against Boston, once again, the Yankees big bats struggled to get any wood on the ball. Derek Jeter went 1-for-5, Mark Teixeria went 0-for-5. A-Rod was 1-for-3, Jorge Posada 1-for-4, and Nick Swisher 1-for-4. These are the guys the Yankees need to deliver the big hits in the big moments if this team is going to go anywhere this year, and since the start of this season, this same group has been fairly inconsistent. Much has been made of Jeter's struggles this year, but the captain is hitting .268; although he's never been known as a huge accumulator of statistics, at age 37, he is showing signs of deteriora...

Phil Jackson's retirement from coaching is not even 48 hours old, and already rumors are flying that the former Lakers coach could make a comeback to the sidelines. Jackson, who sat and watched his Lakers put forth a gutless effort in Dallas on Sunday while en route to a series sweep at the hands of the Mavericks in the Western Conference Semi's, could be poised for a return to the bench but not with LA. Sources told the New York Post late last night that Jackson wouldn't mind coming back to coaching in the "right situation." Of course, the Post takes this as an opportunity to speculate that Jackson is open to coming to the Knicks who still have a coach in Mike D'Antoni, who, by the bye, is signed through next summer. Jackson thought about coaching the Knicks, albeit briefly in 2005 when he considered his first comeback from coaching. Ultimately, he returned to the Lakers. Jackson, who is 65, would be an interesting choice as coach for the fledgeing Knicks fra...

The NFL lockout has been back in effect for two weeks now, and the NFL is preparing its case against the players and Minnesota Judge Susan Nelson, which will be heard before the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals; to say the least, their argument is quite persuasive. The NFL owners claim that the union's decertification is a total sham, and that Judge Nelson had no authority to lift the lockout; further that she should have waited for the NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) to rule. The NFL also claims that without a new CBA the league would descend into utter chaos as teams that are better off economically, i.e. the Dallas Cowboys, would be able to sign as many top flight free agents as they possibly could while lesser franchises, i.e. the Buffalo Bills and the Jacksonville Jaguars, would have a very hard time competing economically. "It would be difficult, if not impossible, to unscramble the eggs and return those players to clubs that otherwise may have had contract arrangem...

Rumors have started to swirl around Citi Field, little the brutal winds that come off the bay near the Mets home in Queens New York. Ever since the San Francisco Giants landed in New York on Tuesday, rumors have swirled that the world champions are interested in acquiring the services of Jose Reyes. Of course everyone is now denying the rumor: Giants GM Brian Sabean said: "I can't respond to that. Honestly, I haven't seen or talked to Sandy Alderson since January ... I haven't talked to anybody from the Mets so I have no idea where the hell it came from" ( ESPN ). When Reyes was asked about the trade, he said he had no comment but is worried about playing baseball for the Mets, at least for now. The fact that trade rumors are heating up in early May for the Mets is a microcosm for how bad things have been for the Mets. From bankrupt ownership, a troubling $1 billion lawsuit based off of the Wilpons equity on the Madoff scheme, and a deadfully boring baseball tea...