COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

The Mets are off to an inauspicious start this spring, dropping both ends of split-squad action against the Miami Marlins (by a score of 5-3) and St. Louis Cardinals (by a score of 2-0) on Saturday to start the preseason at 0-2. Yes, it is preseason; there is only so much one can pull from these games where the likes of Stephen Gonsalves and Quinn Brodey are getting extended looks by the big league club, but let’s give it a shot. Here is what we learned from the pre-season opener for the Metropolitans. Starting Pitching struggled : It’s only day one, but it was a fairly tough day on the mound today for both Marcus Stroman and Rick Porcello. Of the two, Stroman probably pitched the best down in Jupiter against the Cardinals. He worked around a Matt Carpenter single to left by striking out both Paul Goldschmidt and Yadier Molina on sliders to get through the bottom of the first. The Mets tried to push Stroman into the second inning, but the righty surrendered a solo s...

So NFL free agent frenzy is just weeks away, and the latest hot rumor has nothing to do with anyone hitting the market. Instead troubled wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. could be on the move for the second straight off-season, and rumors are he wants to come back to New York. No, not with the Giants, but with the Jets. According to Sports Illustrated, the Jets would be a "ideal landing spot" for Beckham should the Cleveland Browns decide to trade the walking, talking headache. Whoever that source is that thinks the Jets would be "ideal" for Beckham must be either Beckham's agent, close friend, or a complete and total fool. There is no way that a Beckham-Jets union could ever work. Ever! First of all the biggest obstacle would be head coach Adam Gase, who has a history of rubbing players with large egos the wrong way. Just look at the Jets poor handling of LeVeon Bell this past season as an example. There were rumors that Gase never wanted Bell, and proc...

If you could explain the NFL's sudden desire to expand the playoff field to an odd seven teams per conference, and expand the regular season to an odder 17-game schedule, the word would likely be: greed. Because the NFL owners look at the $15 billion behemoth that is the NFL, and they hear the catcalls from fans across the league: they want more football. They want to get rid of preseason games. They want to see football played until President's Day. What was once fodder for sports talk radio among fans is now, slowly, and possibly, becoming reality in the NFL. With the League speeding through the process to strike on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement, almost a whole year before the current deal runs out, the owners are dead-set on expanding the playoff field from 12 teams to 14 teams (seven teams per conference) for the 2020 season. Under the new playoff format only one team from each conference would receive a bye week, and would be paid by the league to sit the w...

Aaron Judge isn't a happy camper. Aside from the fact that Judge is starting Spring Training on the mend with a shoulder ailment that has kept the Yankees slugger from hitting the baseball in camp, Judge joined a long list of players around Major League Baseball who have lashed out against the Houston Astros and the Sign Stealing Scandal . Judge said the Astros should be stripped of their World Series title in 2017, and players should be punished for their involvement in the scandal. Last month Major League Baseball came down hard on the Astros, suspending manager A.J. Hinch and General Manager Jeff Luhnow, finning the 'Stros and stripping them of first round picks for several years. The Astros took it a step further firing Hinch and Luhnow. Soon thereafter word came down that Alex Cora, then a bench coach with the Astros, and Carlos Beltran, a bench player for Houston in 2017, were the key cogs in orchestrating the scandal. Both Cora, the manager of the Boston Red Sox ...

In the end it's on the Wilpon's. It's always on the Wilpon's. After initial reports indicated Tuesday that billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen was backing out of a $2.6 billion sale to purchase the New York Mets from Fred and Jeff Wilpon, details about why the deal fell through are starting to leak out. According to the New York Post the deal died because Jeff Wilpon wanted more power and say in the franchise's operation -- even with Cohen as the majority owner. The Wilpon's wanted Jeff to maintain control of the team through the five year transitional window and maintain a senior position within the organization after Cohen took over. There was no way Cohen was going to accept having the Wilpon's hang around with total control for that long and he got out of the deal. There is also a rumor that Cohen was trying to change the financial terms of the deal as well. Either way Cohen is not going to buy the Mets, and expressed his disappointment...

In an off-season that has been dominated by the nothing but bad news for the team across town in the New York Mets, it has been kinda quiet in the Bronx. Really, outside of the signing of Gerrit Cole, there hasn't been a lot to talk about in Yankee-land, until now. James Paxton could miss anywhere between three to four months after undergoing back surgery to remove a peridiscal cyst from his lower back. The initial diagnosis had Paxton not returning to the Yankees rotation until June at the latest, however, a report from MLB Network's Jon Heyman has Paxton coming back as early as late April or early May. "We're very optimistic that he will be back in the first third of the season," Paxton's agent Scott Boras said. Paxton is arguably the Yankees second best starter, and might be its most valuable behind Cole, since Paxton is a lefty. In his first season in Pinstripes, Paxton went 15-6 with a 3.82 ERA in 29 starts, including winning 10 of his last 11 ...

This could only happen to the Mets. And six days before Spring Training no less. Steve Cohen, the Billionaire hedge fund manager, whose endless pockets of money appeared to be in line to become the next owner of the New York Mets, now won't be after contract negotiations stalled. Multiple reports indicated late Tuesday that the discussion between the Wilpon's and Cohen has fallen through completely after Cohen walked away from the table. The parameters of the deal may have changed, and it is anyone's guess as to why and how. But history tells us that this is shaping up into another dirty trick by the Wilpon's. Why? Well, nine years ago the Mets were in negotiations to sell a minority stake to another hedge fund manager in David Eihnorn. There was even discussion that the Mets would make Eihnorn the majority owner, potentially, after three years. Then, suddenly the deal fell through. Many speculated then that the Wilpon's convinced Eihnorn that Major League B...

CHIEFS 31 - 49ERS 20  It wasn't easy, and it certainly wasn't pretty. But when you are a franchise like the Kansas City Chiefs, who have waited 50 years to win another Super Bowl, no road ever is. When Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes threw his second interception of the evening on a pass intended for Tyreek Hill that bounced up into the hands of safety Travarius Moore with 11:57 to play, and Kansas City already down 20-10, things went from bleak to looking really bleak. The 49ers rode their defense all the way to the Super Bowl. And after a topsy turvy first half, their front seven was really sticking it to the Chiefs and Mahomes. Kansas City couldn't slow down the Niner pass rush as defensive end Nick Bosa spent a large amount of time in the Kansas City backfield rushing Mahomes all night, forcing the 2018 League MVP to make throws he normally wouldn't make under most conditions. After Kansas City scored its first touchdown of the night in the first quarter...