COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

Now Brian Cashman is calling Alex Rodriguez's bluff. He is daring the troubled third baseman to file a grievance with the MLB Players Association if he feels the Yankees are preventing him from playing if he is indeed healthy. Here's the recap: a week before he was scheduled to return from his minor league rehab assignment, Rodriguez told the Yankees that he strained his quad. Yankees doctors examined him, and found that it was a grade 1 strain, and pushed back his time table for a return. Of course, Rodriguez didn't trust the Yankees doctors, and went for a second opinion against Yankee wishes. He checked with Dr. Michael Gross who is the Director of the Active Center of Health and Wellness at Hackensack University Medical Center in Hackensack, NJ, and according to sources, told A-Rod that he was healthy and didn't see a strain. Of course Gross tried to back out of those claims on Mike Francesa's WFAN show this past week. This is also the same Dr. Gross...

Alfonso Soriano made his return to Yankee pinstripes Friday night, and proceeded to go 0-for-5 at the plate. Acquired early Friday morning for minor league pitcher Corey Black, the Yankees bring back Soriano in a time where they are desperate for a power bat in the middle of their lineup. So desperate that Soriano was batting clean-up in last night's lineup. But such is life for the NY Yankees in 2013, a year where they have seen their star players: Derek Jeter, Mark Teixiera, and Curtis Granderson miss most, if not all, of the season due to injuries. A year where the Yankees have been at war with Alex Rodriguez over a quad injury, as well as in wait for MLB's ruling whether to suspend Rodriguez for 100 games due to steroid use. It's been a fun year all around for the Bronx Bombers. To think that Soriano is going to come in here and turn things around, you better get ready to be disappointed. This could go down as another typical Yankees deal, where they bring i...

It was supposed to be a grand occasion for the the New York Yankees. They were getting their super star shortstop back on the field for the first time since a hideous ankle injury last October in the ALCS that put Jeter's season on ice, and dooming the Bronx Bombers playoff chances in the process. After missing 91 games, Jeter made his season debut on Thursday at Yankees Stadium against the Royals. It got off to a great start, as he legged out an infield single and scored on a sacrifice fly by Vernon Wells. Overall, Jeter went 1-for-4 with a run scored and an RBI. However, in the eighth inning he left the ball game with tightness in his quad, and will have to reexamined today with an MRI, and the Yankees and Jeter are hoping it's nothing serious. Jeter was rushed up to the big club because of the number of injuries this team has endured this year. Both Travis Hafner and Brett Gardner were injured and add that to the teams' struggles this season, and the result was...

Victor Cruz is not the only one doing the salsa right now. Every Giants fan in the area is joining in as Cruz and the New York Giants agreed to a brand new five year, $43 million contract that will take him through the 2018 season. Cruz has been one of the NFL's more prolific rising young stars. A down-to-earth kid from Paterson, NJ, Cruz wanted to remain a Giant -- whether the contract was done now or later. The fact that he got the deal done now is a credit to him for not dragging negotiations into the season, and creating a distraction in the process. In the last two seasons combined, Cruz has 168 receptions for 2,628 yards and 19 touchdowns. He rose to fame in 2011, when he burst onto the scene as an undrafted rookie, and lit it up, highlighted by his 99-yard touchdown against the Jets, that propelled the Giants to another Super Bowl run. Now, Cruz is no longer a surprise to do big things, he is expected to do big things. While Hakeem Nicks is considered by some to b...

Matt Harvey has been everything the Mets would have hoped for in his first full season at the top of the Mets rotation. He has been spectacular for most of the season, with a 7-2 record and a 2.35 ERA. He has made Mets' fans forget about Johan Santana, and is already drawing comparisons to Tom Seaver and Doc Gooden. There is even the chance that Harvey could get a nod in the All Star game which is at Citi Field in less than a week. So what's not to like about where Matt Havery is at this point in his life? Well, apparently the Mets ace, or at least Harvey and his agent, feel that he has achieved enough stardom that it requires him to make a clown of himself with GQ-like spreads in the New York Post and ESPN the Magazine. There was Harvey sporting himself either half naked, or in cloths that probably cost more than the contract that he is currently in with the Mets, posing for pictures with an erotic blonde bombshell. Broadway Matt Harvey has arrived! “I’ve always wa...

I guess it has been too long since the Jets have last been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Maybe Rex Ryan was getting antsy as the Patriots and former tight end Aaron Hernandez grabbed the headlines for his arrest as a suspect in a homicide case, and the fact that Tim Tebow, Ryan's favorite tire to kick, signed with the Pats as well? So what better way to get attention to go to Pamplona, Spain and run from a bunch of teed-off bulls. Ryan was pictured running for his life from a gigantic bull that had pushed its way through the center of the square. I guess it's all in good fun for Rex -- because nothing could be scarier then a 80,000 angry Jets fans -- so I guess a bull is nothing. Luckily for Ryan the bull didn't gourd him where it hurts. I wonder though, if Ryan got gourd in the rear end, would it be considered a butt-fumble? Maybe he should have taken Mark Sanchez with him to show him what running into a rear end is really like? As usual the Jets want ...

A week after the A-Rod Twitter-gate that led to Yankees GM Brian Cashman to tell Rodriguez to "shut the (blank) up," Alex Rodriguez has been finally cleared to participate in baseball activities. He will begin his rehab assignment this week in Charleston, South Carolina. Typically news like this wouldn't draw much attention, but since it's Rodriguez, it's going to garner plenty. While he hasn't played at all this season, Rodriguez has been in the news enough this year. He has been linked to a Miami based steroid pod, Biogenesis, and is one of many star players who could face a 100-game suspension if MLB digs up enough information to suspend him. Rodriguez is the ultimate lightning rod. The last time we saw him at Yankee Stadium he was ogling a group of young women near the Yankees dugout during New York's hideous sweep at the hands of the Detroit Tigers. For a Yankees team that has been struggling of late, adding Rodriguez could be both a great ...

The last time we saw Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett and Jason Terry they were throwing bricks in a listless performance against the Knicks in the first round of this NBA playoffs this past Spring. Yet, that performance doesn't seem to bother the Nets ownership group, and General Manger Billy King, who swung a deal with the Boston Celtics to acquire the three elder stars for Gerald Wallace, Kris Humphries, Reggie Evans, Keith Bogans, Kris Joseph, AND the Nets first round draft picks in 2014, '16, and '18. While some might scuff at Wallace and Humphries, as well as the unknown in three draft picks, the Nets gave up a lot for three guys who have very little left to offer in their NBA career. Sure Pierce and Garnett are first ballot Hall of Famers, but the point is the Nets did themselves, their new head coach Jason Kidd, a huge disservice bringing in two aging stars to a ball club that was initially trying to build a team that would compete year in and year out. Instead Br...