COHEN'S CORNER SPORTS

 METS 3 - PHILLIES 0  There is just something really different about this Mets team; dare we say, even magical.   For the second time in franchise history, the New York Mets pitched a no-hitter. Some 10-years after Johan Santana became the only starting pitcher in Mets history to start and finish a no-hitter, Mets fans witnessed five pitches combine for one on Friday night against the Philadelphia Phillies.   Tyler Megill, Drew Smith, Joely Rodriguez, Seth Lugo, and Edwin Diaz will now be joined at the hip for all time after tossing one of the most memorable games in Mets history. And to think it was not even close to being easy. Not against a Philadelphia team that had whipped the floor with the Colorado Rockies. The Mets needed 159 pitches to get through it all, the most ever thrown for a no-hitter. The previous mark was owned by the Houston Astros who tossed 151 pitches in a combined no-no of the New York Yankees back in 2003 when Houston was still a National Leag...

  The suddenly surging Yankees won their seventh straight game Friday night behind four home runs en route to a 12-2 smack down of the Kansas City Royals. Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton, Anthony Rizzo, and Gleyber Torres all went deep as the Yankee posted double-digits in runs for the fourth time in this current winning streak.   Stanton and Rizzo both went deep in the first inning as the Yankees built an early 3-0 lead. While the Royals would strike back, scoring a couple of runs to get to within 3-2, Nestor Cortes kept the Royals at bay. The lefty struck out three batters, scattered eight hits over five innings of work for the Bronx Bombers as he lowered his ERA to 1.31. The Yankees put the game away in the later inning, scoring a total of nine runs between the seventh and eighth innings combined. D.J. LaMahieu got it started with a RBI single in the seventh, scoring Isiah-Kiner Falefa to make it a 4-2 ballgame. Judge followed with a mammoth three-run homer to give the Yanks...

 The New York Giants flipped the football world on its head in the NFL draft with the surprise drafting of Oregon star defensive end Kayvon Thibodeaux with the fifth overall pick.  Not many had the Giants taking the talented and brash defensive end, who some have questioned his passion for football. Clearly the Giants didn't agree with that sentiment. As ESPN reported after the pick was made, Giants General Manager Joe Schoen traveled to Eugene, Oregon to watch Thibodeaux work out, and the Giants held a Zoom meeting with him this week. They love the kid. He's explosive off the edge --- ranking third in college football in QB pressures --- something the Giants haven't had since they had the likes of Osi Umenyiora, Michael Strahan and Justin Tuck ruling at the Meadowlands.  Thibodeaux told anyone who would listen that he wanted to play in New York, even telling SNY early Thursday that he considers New York a "second home." Now those wishes come to fruition.   He i...

 CELTICS 109 - NETS 103 The Brooklyn Nets are on the brink of elimination, and with it, they are likely on the brink of watching the gamble they made in the summer of 2019 come crashing down. The Nets fell to the Boston Celtics in Game 3 of their first round playoff series by the count of 109-103; Brooklyn now trails that series 3-0. Barring a miraculous comeback, the Nets will face elimination every time they step on the court in this series beginning Monday night in Game 4. Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving had lackluster efforts on Saturday. Both All Stars each scored only 16 points, while combining to go 12-for-28 from the field. Meanwhile, Jayson Tatum, who has been all world already in this series, was unstoppable once again in Game 3, netting 39 points on 13-of-29 shooting, including 4-for-13 from downtown, and 9-for-10 from the free throw line. Jaylen Brown added 23 points in the favor of the Celtics. For Durant and Irving, the Nets run the past two seasons has all been about t...

It was one of the more disturbing and bizarre scenes one could imagine at a baseball stadium. In the moments following the Yankees 6-5 walk-off victory over the Cleveland Guardians, Yankees fans started throwing garbage onto the field in the direction of the Guardians outfielders. Both teams sprinted into the outfield to assist the Guardians players who were drawing the ire of Yankees fans. Even Yankees broadcaster John Sterling called the fans who threw garbage onto the field as "Hooligans," and not "Yankees fans."  Apparently the incident was precipitated earlier in the game after Isiah-Kiner Falefa tied the game on a double, Cleveland right fielder Oscar Mercado pointed at the stands and center fielder Myles Straw scaled the chain-link fence to confront a Yankees fan. Straw later told reporters after the game that Yankees fans are the "classless...worst fanbase on the planet." This is not the first time that Yankees fans have behaved badly in the Bronx....

 It has been a tough couple weeks for streamers of late. The trouble seemed to start with the lackluster rollout of Apple TV+'s MLB coverage, which was decried by fans for either its glitchy interface or the quality of the broadcast teams in general.  Then came the news that Netflix, the streaming giant that really started us all down this path of pay-to-watch content platforms reported a lose of over 200,000 subscribers , creating a sell-off of its once powerful stock tumbling downward to $215 a share. This for a stock that at one point was closing in on $700 a share back in November.  Add that to the whole Disney vs. Ron deSantis controversy down in Florida, and the apparent disgust that NBA legend Jerry West, and others have for the HBO Max series "Winning Time," which is very, very, very loosely based on the Showtime Lakers of the 1980s to the point West's own attorney's are asking for a retraction of his portrayal on the show.  In case you are wondering West ...

 At 11-4 the New York Mets have the most wins in Major League Baseball, even if they trail by percentage points to the LA Dodgers who are 10-3. The Mets have gotten to this point with great starting pitching, and clutch hitting. It also helps to have a veteran manager in Buck Schowalter, who to this point has put his players in positions to excel.  There is a different vibe to this team; it has been apparent from the start. Right from the moment Francisco Lindor got hit by a pitch in Washington the second game of the season, and Showalter led the team out of the dugout in protest -- this has been a team that has been totally cohesive.  Check out this week's vlog for more... 

 ORIOLES 5 - YANKEES 0 Yankees starting pitcher Nestor Cortes had a rare feat that few enjoy, pitching an immaculate inning against the Baltimore Orioles as he struck out the side on just nine pitches. Nine! How rare is the immaculate inning? There have only been 106 immaculate innings in baseball history. Cortes wound up striking out 12 batters in five innings of work, keeping the Yankees in a scoreless game during the early stages. Unfortunately for Cortes, the Yankees offense had no answers for Bruce Zimmerman. Zimmerman and three relievers held the Yankees to just four hits, all of them singles. The Orioles went to work scratching out five runs in the bottom of the eighth. Ex-Yankees Rougned Odor's two-run single staked the Orioles to a 2-0 lead. Kelvin Gutierrez would follow with a two-run double to make it 4-0. Jorge Mateo capped off a 3-for-4 afternoon with a RBI single to push across the final run of the day. The loss dropped the Yankees at 5-5 on the season. New York also...

DIAMONDBACKS 3 - METS 2  After an emotionally charged Opening Day that saw the Mets thump the Arizona Diamondbacks 10-3, on the same day they unveiled the Tom Seaver statue, it was only a matter of time that the Mets got a slight reality check.  They received it Saturday in a 3-2 loss to Arizona.  Seth Lugo after giving up 2 runs. Getty Images. Zac Gallen and three D-Back relievers stymied the Mets, holding the Amazin's to just three hits over the games first seven innings. Gallen was especially tricky on the Mets. He held the Mets to just two hits over four innings, and allowed only one run to second base.  The D-Backs eventually broke through  against the Mets bullpen with a two-run blast by Sergio Alcantra and a RBI double by Ketel Marte in the seventh inning to take a 3-0 lead.  Joely Rodriguez took the lose, although Seth Lugo was charged with a pair of runs. The Mets would trim that deficit down to a single run when Starling Marte hit his second homer...

  It was an emotional morning as Tom Seaver’s statue was unveiled before friends, family, Mets alumni, and of course the fans at Citi Field in Queens. Tom Seaver statue. Getty Images   Seaver’s widow, Nancy and their two daughters, Sarah and Ann Elizabeth were on hand for the ceremony. Nancy tried to hold back tears as she said in her opening statement, “Tom, it’s nice to have you here, where you belong.”  Mets Hall of Famer Mike Piazza called Seaver the Greatest Met of All Time, reflecting back to the day Piazza’s own father to Philadelphia to see Seaver pitch against the Phillies. Let's relieve some of the festivities: 

 The New York Mets are off to a scintillating start to the 2022 season under new skipper Buck Showalter. At 3-1, the Mets were very impressive in their series against a bad Washington Nationals team. Now they attention turns to Philly.  Plus I talk about the Aaron Judge contract dispute, and the Apple TV+ meltdown from fans! 

 METS 7 - NATIONALS 3  The Washington Nationals may have woken up a sleeping giant in the New York Mets.  With the Mets already leading 4-3 in the fifth inning, Francisco Lindor squared to bunt. Little did he know what was coming next as a pitch by Steve Cishek zipped out of his hands and smacked Lindor in the front of his helmet, knocking him to the ground.  Mets manager Buck Showalter exploded out of the dugout, screaming at Cishek with the entire Mets bench right behind him. Both benches cleared, but no punches were thrown.  Showalter indicated after the season opener on Thursday that he was not happy with the Nationals after James McCann and Pete Alonso were both drilled near the head in the Mets 5-1 win. His frustration, and the Mets frustration, boiled over on Friday night.    If anything the incident indicates how close this Mets club is already. These guys have a chip on their shoulder, and will go to battle with one another. That comes from Sh...

 YANKEES 6 - RED SOX 5 - 11 Innings  It wasn't pretty, in fact it was down right ugly for most of the day, but the Yankees came away with a 6-5 win over Boston in extras to open the season.  Josh Donaldson who was acquired along with Isiah-Kiner Falefa from Minnesota for Gary Sanchez and Gio Urshela, turned out to be the hero, lining the game-winning single up the middle in the bottom of the 11th inning to drive in Kiner-Falefa with the deciding run. Donaldson finished 2-of-6 in his first game as a Yankee, capping off what was a bizarre day at the stadium.  How bizarre? Well it started with Gerrit Cole yelling at Billy Cyrstal to hurry up with the ceremonial first pitch because it threw him off his timing. If you want to believe that.  The result? Cole served up a two-run homer to Rafael Devers, and a RBI double to J.D. Martinez to give the Red Sox a 3-0 lead.  Cole, who struggled after getting caught with Spider Tack last season, finished his uneven day gi...

  On the day the New York Yankees open the 2022 season against the Boston Red Sox, word came down from General Manager Brian Cashman that slugger Aaron Judge could not come to terms on a long term deal with the Yankees. According to Jeff Passan of ESPN, the Yankees offered Judge a seven-year, $213 million contract, with $17 million in addition as part of arbitration that would have brought the total salary to $230 million. It would have paid him around $30.5 million a year. It would have been the highest annual average the Yankees have ever give a player.  "Obviously, our intent is to have Aaron Judge stay as a New York Yankee as we move forward, and I know that his intent as well, which is a good thing. We're going to be entering those efforts in a new arena, which would be at the end of the season when free agency starts, and maybe that will determine what the real market value would be, because we certainly couldn't agree at this stage on a contract extension." Jud...

  For a few hours late Thursday night, the heavy downpours that smacked the north-east dissipated in Washington D.C., and a cloud of uncertainty parted after Tylor Megill gave the New York Mets exactly what they were hoping for in a 5-1 Opening Night win over the Washington Nationals on Thursday night. Megill was dominant, hitting the radar gun at 99 mph on multiple occasions as he blanked the Washington Nationals over five superb innings, allowing only three hits and striking out six. “He was awesome. He was electric,” first baseman Pete Alonso said. Taylor Megill pitches for the Mets. Getty Images. Megill is not new to this. The 6-foot-7, 26-year old was impressive last season in his rookie year, recording 99 Ks in 89 innings. Outside of deGrom and Max Scherzer, Megill was the Mets’ best pitcher in Spring Training, giving manager Buck Showalter the confidence he needed to go with the once-unknown Mets starter. Meanwhile, the Mets did just enough offensively to assist...

 As if things couldn't get any more complicated for the New York Mets, it just did on Saturday when official word came down that Max Scherzer will be sidelined with hamstring tightness.  Scherzer was slated to start Opening Day after Jacob deGrom was sidelined with a stress reaction in his right shoulder blade.  "Don't know," Scherzer said when asked when he would pitch again. "I've had these little hamstring injuries before. They go away in days. Fortunately enough I've been pretty good to not have serious hamstring injuries. I've had just little hiccups. "I think this is the same thing. For me, it's just a day-to-day thing ... but when you're dealing with hammies, you never know." If Scherzer can't pitch on Thursday in Washington against his old team, than it would likely be either Chris Bassitt or Taijuan Walker who gets the ball to open the season for the Mets.  Scherzer signed a $130 million deal with New York this off-se...

 Jacob deGrom's 2022 season begins the same way his 2021 season ended, on the injury list.  So it goes for the New York Mets as they embark on what was supposed to be a 2022 season that everyone was looking forward to. A year that had great expectations.  Instead, the Mets will be without their ace Jacob deGrom for at least a month after an MRI to his shoulder revealed a stress reaction to his right scapula.  Jeff Passan reported that deGrom would miss "significant time." The Mets issued a statement it would be four weeks.  Regardless this is a huge blow for the Mets.  The Mets were hoping to feature a rotation with deGrom and former Nationals ace Max Scherzer at the top of the rotation, giving New York what many considered the best starting rotation in baseball, if not, certainly the best 1-2 punch in the game.  Now Scherzer will be the one getting the ball on Opening Day next Thursday in his old digs at Nationals Park. While the Mets rotation is stil...