COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

The Cleveland Browns did the Jets a big favor. They saved the Jets from themselves. For weeks there was speculation that the Jets would take talented but troubled Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield with the third pick in the 2018 NFL Draft. Instead, the Browns took Mayfield first overall, setting up the Jets with a heck of scenario: Sam Darnold or Josh Rosen. With the third pick, the Jets got their man: Sam Darnold.  The guy who had the the Sam Darnold jersey at the USC game got his wish, he can keep that jersey. It is amazing how ironic this moment is for the Jets. Fans were clamoring for the team to "Suck for Sam" throughout the 2017 season, and when the Jets won "too many games" last year, those same fans gave up on the dream. Guess what? The Jets got the guy they wanted after all. While Darnold is still very young, he's only 20-years old. He had a very solid two-year career at USC. His first season in 2016 was much better than his sophomore year, bu...

The New York Giants and David Gettleman had a plan. They wanted to go out and get a player who has Hall of Fame potential, and they did just that taking running back Saquon Barkley with the number two pick in the NFL Draft. While some thought the Giants should have taken a quarterback in this spot, Gettleman and head coach Pat Shurmur were not enamored with this quarterback class. With Eli Manning still with something to prove at age 37, and an unproven talken in Davis Webb, the Giants didn't feel there was a rush to draft a quarterback this high right now. Who can blame them? Manning is a Hall of Famer. He is surrounded by talent on a team that can still win now. Why not see if he can give this team two more solid years under center before addressing this position. By adding Barkley, the Giants give Manning the dynamic runner that he has never had behind him. Sure the Giants had Tiki Barber at the beginning of Manning's career. And they had the two-headed monster of Brando...

The future of New York City's two football teams is on the line tonight. For months speculation has run rampant as to whom the Giants and Jets will pick with the second and third overall picks in tonight's NFL Draft. Of course a lot will be determined by what the Cleveland Browns decide to do with the first pick. Cleveland has been linked to USC quarterback Sam Darnold for quiet a while. It would be a good pick for them, since Darnold posses the kind of pose and accuracy needed to compete in the AFC North. However, this is the Browns we are talking about. And of course in Cleveland Browns fashion rumors are running rampant that they could draft Oklahoma quarterback Baker Mayfield instead. If that happens it will shake up the draft big time, meaning the Giants and Jets would have the top three quarterbacks (Darnold, Josh Allen and Josh Rosen) at their disposal. Who the Giants will likely pick: If Darnold goes first to the the Browns, the Giants will probably draft Penn State...

Matt Harvey’s days in the Mets starting rotation are numbered, at least for now. The embattled right-hander was demoted to the bullpen on Saturday before the Mets 4-3 loss to the Atlanta Braves. Mets manager Mickey Callaway said that Harvey’s demotion could lead to a return to the rotation down the road, if he is able to show improvement.   “I wouldn’t say he is discouraged. I would say he is motivated to go out there and show he can start. We will do everything we can to help him do that,” Callaway told reporters, Saturday. There is no doubt that Callaway and pitching coach Dave Eiland know their stuff. Both have seen their fare share of starting pitchers take a demotion in stride only to return to the rotation better than ever. Callaway saw it in Cleveland with Carlos Carrassco and Trevor Bauer. And, even with the Mets, Callaway sent both Seth Lugo and Robert Gsellman to the bullpen to great success. Gsellman is 2-0 with a 2.19 ERA in 10 appearances, while Lu...

BLUE JAYS 8 - YANKEES 5 Win one night, lose the next. Win one night, lose the next. It's has to be frustrating for the Yankees right now. After 18-games the team can't get things moving in the right direction as they find themselves at 9-9 after a 8-5 loss to the Blue Jays on Friday at the Stadium. Complicating matters is the fact that the Boston Red Sox are starting to run and hide in the AL East. Including Boston's 7-3 win over Oakland on Friday, the Red Sox are 17-2, seven games ahead of the Yankees for first place. The Red Sox have been so dominant thus far that the Rays and Orioles are already double-digits behind the lead. What has to really be frustrating for Aaron Boone tonight is the fact his ball club had leads of 2-0 and 4-2 thanks to home runs by Tyler Austin and Giancarlo Stanton. For Stanton it was his fourth homer of the year, breaking a 50 at-bat homerless streak. The fretful began in the top of the fourth when Kendrys Morales connected on a ground r...

METS 5, BRAVES 3 - 12 Innings  Maybe Matt Harvey can take a page out of Robert Gsellman's book if he wants to learn how to handle a demotion with professionalism. Gsellman was once a member of the Mets starting rotation, until a series of poor starts put the 24-year old in the bullpen. When camp opened up this year, manager Mickey Callaway told Gsellman that he would best serve the team as a reliever. Instead of complaining, he grabbed the bull by the horns and ran with it. In 10.1 innings this year, Gsellman owns a 2.61 ERA, and has struck out 15 batters while walking only four. He has become the Mets most reliable reliever next to another former starter in Seth Lugo. On Friday night, the Mets turned to Lugo and Gsellman to get them through a tough night in Atlanta, where Noah Syndergaard did not have his best stuff on the mound. Lugo gave the Mets two shutout innings in the seventh and eighth innings, helped out by a two fantastic throws by catcher Tomas Nido that thr...

The New York Giants will open 2018 against a familiar individual. Tom Coughlin is coming back to East Rutherford in his second season as the executive VP of the Jacksonville Jaguars. Eli Manning (R) will see Tom Coughin in Jaguars garb in Week1 The Giants-Jaguars season opener will be the first home opener in Week 1 for the Giants since 2012, when the Giants squared-off with the Cowboys. The game will also be the first non-NFC East season opener for the Giants since 2010 when they began that season against the Carolina Panthers. The Giants come into the season with a new look at head coach with Pat Shurmur and GM Dave Gettleman. Quarterback Eli Manning will still be under center, and he could have Saquon Barkley in the backfield if the Giants select him next week in the NFL Draft. As for Jacksonville, they are coming off an appearance in the AFC Championship Game, and will bring back old-school uniforms to boot. While the Giants get a reprieve from playing the Cowboys in We...

The New York Jets 2018 schedule has been revealed courtesy of Brian Costello of the New York Post . Week 1: at Lions, Monday, Sept. 10, 7:10 p.m. Week 2: vs. Dolphins, Sunday, Sept. 16, 1 p.m. Week 3: at Browns, Thursday, Sept. 20, 8:20 p.m. Week 4: at Jaguars, Sunday, Sept. 30, 1 p.m. Week 5: vs. Broncos, Sunday, Oct. 7, 1 p.m. Week 6: vs. Colts, Sunday, Oct. 14, 1 p.m. Week 7: vs. Vikings, Sunday, Oct. 21, 1 p.m. Week 8: at Bears, Sunday, Oct. 28, 1 p.m. Week 9: at Dolphins, Sunday, Nov. 4, 1 p.m. Week 10: vs. Bills, Sunday, Nov. 11, 1 p.m. BYE Week Week 12: vs. Patriots, Sunday, Nov. 25, 1 p.m. Week 13: at Titans, Sunday, Dec. 2, 4:05 p.m. Week 14: at Bills, Sunday, Dec. 9, 1 p.m. Week 15: vs. Texans, Saturday, Dec. 15, TBD (4:30 or 8:20 p.m.) Week 16: vs. Packers, Sunday, Dec. 23, 1 p.m. Week 17: at Patriots, Sunday, Dec. 30, 1 p.m. The Jets will open the season in Detroit as was previously reported earlier in the morning. One thing that is differ...

It's NFL Schedule day, which means everyone swarms to Twitter only to get tricked into what may or may not actually be leaks of the NFL schedule. Call it April Fools Day redux. First there was a leak that the Jets would play the Detroit Lions on Thanksgiving Day, which would make some sense since the Lions are due to play the AFC East this season, and CBS has the Lions Turkey Day game. Then moments later, Brian Costello of the New York Post tweeted out that the Jets and Lions were not going to play on Thanksgiving, but, they would instead play each other Week 1, September 10 on Monday Night Football . The scheduling of the Jets on MNF is surprising, considering the Jets are coming off back-to-back 5-11 seasons, and will likely have whichever rookie quarterback they draft (Mayfield, Rosen, Allen, or Darnold) sitting on the bench. The Jets aren't exactly scintillating television, and Sean McDonough left ESPN's package because the games were horrible. Jets-Lions would de...

METS 6 - BREWERS 5 No d'Arnaud? No Plawecki? No problem. A combination of great defense and timely hitting paved the way for the Mets to hold off a very good Milwaukee Brewers team 6-5 in the first of a three-game series at Citi Field. With the win the Mets have captured their ninth straight victory, while boasting baseballs best record at 11-1. The Mets cracked the seal on this one in thunderous fashion. In the bottom of the first, Asdrubal Cabrera doubled to right, before Yoenis Cespedes drove him home on a single to center. An inning later, Todd Fraizer crushed a Zach Davies pitch off the Mets Apple in centerfield for a solo homer to make it 2-0 Metropolitans. The early lead by the Mets sent a huge message that the team was not going to let the bad news earlier in the day drag them down. Instead a sold out crowd at Citi Field saw a Mets team that was chomping at the bit to get back on the field after a day-off. After Milwaukee tied the game on a two-run shot by Hernan Pe...

The 2018 NFL preseason schedule is out, which means only one thing, we are a week away from knowing the regular season schedule. Yes, the weather is improving and baseball is king, but the NFL is about to grab some headlines this month with the schedule release, new uniforms for the Titans, Jaguars and Dolphins, and of course, the NFL Draft. Here is the schedule for the two New York football teams. NY Giants Preseason  CLEVELAND  @ Detroit  @ NY Jets  NEW ENGLAND NY Jets Preseason  ATLANTA @ Washington, Aug 16 8:30 ESPN  NY GIANTS  @ Philadelphia

METS 6 - NATIONALS 5  12 INNINGS  It's only eight games, and a little over a week into the regular season, but the New York Mets made a major statement to all of Major League Baseball this weekend. The statement is as simple as it is direct: "We are for real, and we are here to stay." Snicker and say it's only April, but the Mets are 7-1 and are winning games with the kind of zeal and resolve that we see from teams who have serious plans in mind. Yes, again, it's only April -- but the Mets not only won a game that looked lost at several points on Sunday night, they swept the Washington Nationals in their own ballpark. They leave D.C. with a 3.5 game lead on Washington, something nobody thought would happen this year for a Mets team was only expected to be competitive, and a Nationals team that was expected to run away with its own division. In the end the Nationals may still win the NL East, and may still make serious noise in October, but on this night i...

ORIOLES 5 - YANKEES 2 Nobody said this was going to be easy. The Yankees, a team with the highest of expectations continued their sluggish ways Thursday, dropping a 5-2 decision to the Baltimore Orioles at the Stadium, as New York failed to manage much offense against a Baltimore staff that was ranked 27th in Major League Baseball in team ERA coming into the night. It hasn't been fun for Aaron Boone and the Yankees thus far. Sure they have seen flashes of brilliance, like they did from Giancarlo Stanton on Opening Day in Toronto, and on Wednesday against Tampa Bay when Stanton, Aaron Judge, Didi Gregorios, and Gary Sanchez all went deep. But outside of those couple of moments, New York is struggling to get its footing in the early season. They are hitting .231 as a team, ranked 20th in baseball. And they own a team on base percentage of .317, which is only five points higher than the lowly San Diego Padres. Oh, and both Stanton and Boone have been booed heavily by Yankee fa...

METS 8 - NATIONALS 2  It was a good day to be back at the ballpark for one Michael Conforto. Having missed the final month of the 2017 season with a shoulder injury, followed by months of rehab, Conforto made a triumphant return to the Mets lineup in Washington as New York stunned the D.C. faithful with an 8-2 victory to improve to 5-1 on the young season. The Mets centerfielder was 1-for-4 with a home run and two runs scored in his first game back in blue and orange. "The most difficult part was the journey back," Conforto told SNY after the game. "Everything came together today. It took me a little bit to get going, I had some butterflies, almost like a debut." Added Mickey Callaway on the importance of Conforto's presence, "He adds a whole other level of anxiety for the opposing team. When you back him up with the others we have in the lineup, it creates tremendous anxiety during preparation." It did take a couple of at bats for Conforto t...

Michael Conforto officially makes his return to the Major Leagues today. The New York Mets activated the center fielder Thursday morning from the 10-day Disabled List, and he will leadoff for the Mets when they face the Nationals this afternoon in Washington.  To make room for Conforto on the roster, the Mets optioned utility infielder Phillip Evans to Triple-A Las Vegas of the Pacific Coast League. Last season, Conforto hit .279 with 27 home runs, 20 doubles and 68 RBI in 109 games. His All-Star campaign was cut short in August when he tore the posterior capsule in his left shoulder and was lost for the remainder of the season. According to a Mets Press Release: “at the time of the injury, Conforto ranked among NL leaders in OPS (.944, ninth), OBP (.386, 12 th ) and slugging percentage (.558, ninth). He was also the first Met to hit at least 25 homers in his age 24 season or younger since David Wright hit 30 homers in his age 24 season in 2007.” The question r...