Daily Blotter

Manhattan

A good Samaritan caught a coffee-shop robber in Chelsea, sources said.

Brian Smith, 45, of Brooklyn, sidled up to a customer at the counter of Le Pain Quotidien on Ninth Avenue, near West 15th Street, on July 22 at about 9:35 a.m., the sources said.

When the customer paid for a cup of coffee and put cash on the counter, Smith allegedly snatched the money and ran, the sources said.

A witness chased down Smith and held him until cops arrived and arrested him on petit larceny charges, court records state.

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A $6,000 painting disappeared from a Chelsea frame shop after the store owner had packed it up for delivery, sources said.

The owner of the Westside Frame Shop on Eighth Avenue, near West 18th Street, had wrapped the painting titled "Gold Dusk" on July 24 at about 6:30 p.m. and it was gone when he went to retrieve two days later at about 11:30 a.m., the sources said.

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Three thieves went on a thousand-dollar panty raid at Victoria's Secret in Soho, sources said.

They entered the lingerie shop Sunday at about 6 p.m. and snatched $1,150 worth of underwear.

Descriptions of the suspects were not immediately available.

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A robber took $2,267 worth of designer duds from True Religion in the Financial District, sources said.

The 25-year-old thief, who is about 6-feet tall and 200 pounds, was carrying a yellow briefcase when he walked into the shop Sunday at about 2:20 p.m., the sources added.

He grabbed jeans, a hat and shirts before fleeing, the sources said.

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A thief hungry for chicken, bacon and beef purloined several cases of meat from a van parked in front of a Soho restaurant better known for its seafood, sources said.

The thief removed a padlock from the delivery truck on Mercer Street Sunday at about 10:45 p.m. and took tenderloin, chicken breast, top round and bacon, the sources added.

The heist occurred in front of Lure Fishbar, a yacht-themed eatery known for its lobster, oysters and tuna tartare.

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A Hamilton Heights man was shot dead execution-style on his block, cops said.

Daryl Washington, 27, was shot in the head after an apparent dispute on West 144th Street and Amsterdam Avenue Tuesday at about 10:50 p.m., police said.

Police responded to a 911 call and discovered Washington on the sidewalk near his building with a bullet wound to his head.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

It was not immediately clear what sparked the fatal dispute.

Brooklyn

A woman was battered by two brutes during a robbery in Midwood, cops said.

The thugs were caught on surveillance video grinning and laughing as they trailed the 18-year-old woman into her apartment building in the vicinity of Avenue M and Ocean Avenue Sunday at about 9:40 p.m.

The attackers cornered the victim in the elevator, where one of the thugs grabbed her and dragged her back into the hallway, video shows.

The robbers tried to pry the young woman's handbag loose, police said.

The victim attempted to twist away from them but fell to the floor, where she continued kicking her feet to fight them off, video shows.

The muggers kicked and punched the woman before finally grabbing her purse, and fleeing, the footage shows.

The thieves threw the victim's purse in the bushes but made off with $850 worth of her belongings, including her iPhone and wallet, cops said.

The woman suffered a broken nose, a bruised forehead and bruising to the arms, officials said.

She was taken to a nearby hospital.

One thug is believed to be in his early 20s and was last seen wearing a black T-shirt.

The other is believed to be in his late teens or early 20s, about 250 pounds and was last seen wearing an orange T-shirt and beige shorts.

The Bronx

A startled woman awoke to find a sleeping burglar crashed out on her couch in Claremont, authorities said.

Steven Ramirez Lugo, 22, was sprawled out and snoozing on the sofa of the second-floor apartment when the 19-year-old tenant found him and called cops, court records state.

Her air conditioner had been pushed in and broken and it appeared Lugo had crawled through the window from the fire escape and found a comfy place to rest his head, court documents state.

He was charged with burglary, trespass and criminal mischief.

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Ex-pilot to prison for ‘sleep’-groping 14-year-old passenger

Michael James Pascal, outside federal court in Salt Lake City on Thursday, where he was sentenced to two years in prison for groping a fellow passenger on a 2013 flight.Photo: AP

SALT LAKE CITY — A former Utah airline pilot was sentenced Wednesday to more than two years in prison for groping a 14-year-old girl in the seat next to him during an off-duty flight.

Michael James Pascal, 46, of Park City, appeared in federal court Wednesday in Salt Lake City. He wore a navy blue suit and had close-cropped hair.

"Whatever the sentence is, I will accept it," he told the judge, saying he hoped to be a good father during his time in prison.

On the October 2013 Delta Airlines flight, the teenager awoke from a nap and felt Pascal's hand under her, gripping her buttocks, she said, according to court documents. She elbowed him and yelled, "What the hell are you doing?" the records show.

Earlier, she said, she had pushed down the armrest between them but when she woke up, someone had pushed it upright, she said. Pascal pulled his hand out from under her, she recounted, saying, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I was asleep, I have to use the bathroom."

Pascal told investigators he fell asleep with his hands in his lap and couldn't recall where his hand was when he awoke. He said he had lifted the armrest between him and the girl because the man on his other side was taking up a lot of room.

His attorney Rhome Zabriskie maintained that any contact was inadvertent and that Pascal was asleep.

"When he woke up, he realized he had kind of flopped over on the passenger next to him," he said when Pascal was charged in 2013.

The girl, who was flying alone on the Detroit to Salt Lake City flight, told attendants and changed seats.

She said Pascal earlier in the flight helped her retrieve a blanket from the flight crew after he saw she was on crutches. After she moved, she said, she saw Pascal looking at her in an "annoyed" manner, court documents show.

Pascal lost his job with a regional airline carrier, a Delta Airlines contractor, when he was charged in 2013. In March, a jury convicted him on two counts of abusive sexual contact related to the incident.

"He has suffered an awful lot and it will continue," Zabriskie said Wednesday. Pascal has an 18-year-old daughter of his own and maintained that he was asleep.

Delta on Wednesday deferred comment to an ExpressJet Airlines spokeswoman who said the company does not comment on previous employees. Delta last year told The Associated Press that it cooperated with investigators but had no other comment.

US District Judge Dale Kimball ordered Pascal to turn himself in on Sept. 30. He is set to serve his sentence in Colorado, where he has family, and to serve 60 months of probation afterward. The order also puts him on the sex offender registry.

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Man arrested for stalking GMA’s Robin Roberts

There's more Times Square trouble for ABC's morning show hosts.

A creep has been accused of hounding cancer-surviving "Good Morning America" anchor Robin Roberts — and even threatened to slug her in the face, court records show.

Security called cops after Troy Warren, 43, showed up outside ABC's Time Square studios at least eight times and threatened her.

He made the creepy visits to the 1500 Broadway location while Roberts was inside the studio between June 10 and June 24, according to the criminal complaint.

He asked to see Roberts several times despite being asked to leave.

"When I see her I'm going to punch her in the face," the loon told Michael Centrella the security director of "Good Morning America" at 8 am June 24th. "

"Due to the defendant's above described conduct Ms Robin Roberts fears for her physical safety and well-being," records show.

This is the second major stalking incident at the ABC Time Square studios. Homeless wacko Andre Johnson has been accused of showing up a the location earlier this month with a knife and threatening to stab morning show host and former New York Giant Michael Strahan.

Warren was arraigned Wednesday in Manhattan Criminal Court on misdemeanor stalking and harassment raps.

A judge set bail at $3,000. He has two sealed priors, cops said.

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‘Cold Justice’ success can be attributed to show’s hosts

Dick Wolf tells me that he's not surprised that "Cold Justice" has been renewed for a third season of 10 episodes, set to premiere early next year on TNT.

And, Wolf says, the show's success can be attributed largely to its hosts: Ex-prosecutor Kelly Siegler and former CSI Yolanda McCrary.

"Kelly and Yolanda are, literally, avenging angels who have achieved phenomenal results," says Wolf, who's an executive producer of "Cold Justice." So far, "Cold Justice," which airs Fridays at 9 p.m., has assisted local law enforcement in securing 15 arrests, eight criminal indictments, four confessions, two guilty pleas and one 22-year prison sentence (but who's counting?)

Season-to-date, it's averaging 2.3 million viewers in Live +7 data (equivalent to a week's worth of time-shifted viewing). That's up 24 percent from its winter episodes, and the series is also up over its winter installments in key demos including adults 18-49 (13 percent) and adults 25-54 (4 percent).

So is Wolf thinking of tinkering with the formula for Season 3? "We're not fixing what's broken," he says. (Dan Cutforth, Jane Lipsitz and Tom Thayer are the show's other executive producers.)

What about a potential "Cold Justice" spinoff down the road?

"I never talk about what's in development, but stay tuned," he says.

We will.

Series news in the digital world: Ira Ungerleider, who was a producer on "Friends," is part of the team producing the sitcom "Resident Advisors" for Paramount Digital Entertainment. The series, a "workplace comedy" about a college dorm — "the most hormonally-overloaded, sexually active, out-of-control workplace in the world" — is being spearheaded by "Pitch Perfect" actress Elizabeth Banks and Max Handelman and will star Ryan Hansen, Jamie Chung, Alison Rich, Andrew Bachelor and Graham Rogers. Banks' "Pitch Perfect" co-star, Anna Camp, will also be featured.

Paramount Digital also produces "Hotwives of Orlando" and "Burning Love," both of which stream on Hulu.

Last, but not least …

Mark Ballas ("Dancing With the Stars") has a new single, "Miss Incredible," available on iTunes Aug. 3. He's also doing a show with fellow "DWTS" colleague Derek Hough called "Mark & Derek's Excellent Flip," which premieres early next year on HGTV. On the show, Ballas and Hough will purchase a house in Southern California, gut and rehab the property and flip it (for a profit, of course).

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Yankees’ offense sputters again in loss to woeful Rangers

ARLINGTON, Texas — With two months remaining in Derek Jeter's baseball life the Yankees' hopes of getting the Captain an October nightcap to a Hall of Fame career are melting in the exposed ice sink.

After losing two of three to the morbid Rangers there is no other way to put it. Wednesday night's 3-2 defeat in front of 46,599 at Globe Life Park coupled with the AL East-leading Orioles beating the Angels dropped the Yankees 5 ½ lengths back of the Birds.

That's the biggest deficit since the Yankees were 6 ½ games out on June 9.

Hiroki Kuroda, the last standing member of the Opening Day rotation, gave up three runs in the first and appeared headed for a spanking. Instead, the veteran right-hander provided the Yankees a chance to win by going seven innings in which he allowed just those three runs, nine hits and threw a season-high 115 pitches.

Yet, Colby Lewis, who lost to the Yankees in The Bronx a week ago, gave up solo homers to Brett Gardner and Jacoby Ellsbury and nothing else in seven innings. He allowed two runs and four hits and improved his record to 7-8.

While Lewis was in the game the Yankees had a first-inning at-bat with a runner in scoring position and not another. Lewis entered the game 0-3 with a 6.14 ERA in four career starts against the Yankees.

Gardner's leadoff homer in the first was his 14th of the year and fourth in the three games.

It was the sixth straight game the Yankees hit two homers, but the recent muscle flexing wasn't enough to avoid losing two of three to what is easily the worst team in the American League.

With the non-waiver trade deadline Thursday at 4 p.m., the Yankees will continue to hunt for a starting pitcher and a right-handed hitting outfielder. The consensus inside and outside of the organization is the Yankees need at least one of each in order to serious contend across the final two months of the season.

Even when Kuroda's quality start is added to the equation the Yankees starters haven't pitched well in the last six outings — 2-2 with a 5.00 ERA.

After winning seven of eight following the All-Star break the Yankees have dropped four of five.

With a spent bullpen manager Joe Girardi was hoping Kuroda could work deep into the game. So when Kuroda required 33 pitches to get three outs in the first inning Girardi had to be wondering where the relief was going to come from.

Staked to a 1-0 lead by Gardner's leadoff homer Kuroda gave up a single to Shin-Soo Choo and an RBI double to Elvis Andrus to start the home first. Adrian Beltre scored Andrus with a single to center that was followed by Jim Adduci's single to left. Leonys Martin scored Beltre for a 3-1 lead.

Kuroda kept the Rangers away from home plate in the second and third and pitched out of a serious problem in the fourth when J.P. Arencibia singled and Martin walked to open the frame.

Robert Chirinos' sacrifice-bunt attempt was turned into a force out at third by Chase Headley, Rougned Odor popped up and Choo grounded out.

A pair of two-out singles in the fifth put Kuroda in danger of giving up a run, but he fanned Arencibia with a 3-2 splitter for the final out.

Gardner's homer provided the Yankees' first run and Ellsbury, who had one hit in 23 a-bats, gave them a second with his ninth homer in the third that cut the Rangers' lead to 3-2.

Lewis retired 11 of the next 12 batters he faced.

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Daily Blotter

Brooklyn

Police are on the hunt for a violent thief who snatched a necklace from a woman at a Coney Island bus stop, officials said.

The 54-year-old rider was waiting for the bus at Mermaid Avenue and West 31st Street on July 18 at about 1 p.m. when the suspect walked up to her and forcibly removed her necklace, causing her to fall and hit her face on the pavement, cops said.

The victim was taken to Coney Island Hospital for a cut to her head, according to police.

The thief is believed to be in his 30s, 5-foot-7 and 160 pounds.

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An East Flatbush man was charged with murdering his roommate after stabbing him 11 times, police said.

Wade Swann, 31, of East 96th Street repeatedly plunged a knife into Enrique Galloway, 30, a little after 5 a.m., Monday following an argument, cops said.

Galloway was rushed to Kings County Hospital, where he was pronounced dead on arrival, officials said.

Swann was immediately taken into custody at the scene, police said.

He was charged with murder and weapon possession, cops said Tuesday.

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Police are looking for a gunman who shot a 41-year-old man in the head in East New York in a horrific incident caught on surveillance video.

The victim was standing in front of a bodega at Stanley and Van Siclen avenues with a small dog and another person Sunday at about 8:15 p.m. when the gunman walked briskly up the block with both hands stuffed in his front pockets, the video shows.

The thug pulled a firearm from his left pocket, aimed at the victim's head and fired a single round, cops said.

The wounded man grabbed his face and took off running, the video shows.

He was taken to Brookdale Hospital in critical condition and is unable to talk to police, sources said.

The gunman is about 6-foot-3 and 250 pounds, with close-cut hair. He was last seen wearing a white T-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers.

Staten Island

A Mariners Harbor man fired 13 shots from an assault rifle during a house party, authorities said Monday.

Kemahni Smalls, 22, told police he unloaded the shots from his AR 15 on Andros Avenue near Richmond Terrace on Sunday at about 1:15 a.m., a criminal complaint states.

He claimed he was standing by the DJ booth in his back yard and saw guests running outside saying someone was firing a gun.

Smalls went inside, grabbed his rifle from a black duffle bag, ran to the front of the house, and saw three guys running down the block, sources added.

Smalls opened fire, and 13 shell casings from a .223-caliber weapon were found in front of the home, court records state.

Police recovered an unspent round of .223-caliber ammunition from under Smalls' sofa in the living room, 31 rounds from a duffle bag in his bedroom and another round from his dresser drawer.

Smalls was charged with possession of a weapon and ammunition.

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A driver plowed into a cop who was trying to give her a summons for idling in Mariners Harbor, authorities said.

Jennifer Cumberbatch, 29, who works for the New York State Office for People with Developmental Disabilities, was listening to music in her car with the doors and windows open and the engine running on Grandview Avenue near Brabant Street on Saturday at about 11 p.m., a court complaint charges.

A uniformed police officer started writing her a summons for idling and unreasonable noise, and the irate driver said, "Just give me my summons!" records state.

She then threw her black 2007 Dodge Caliber into reverse, hitting the cop in the leg, causing pain, bruising, redness and swelling, authorities said.

Cumberbatch was charged with assault, reckless endangerment, obstructing governmental administration, disorderly conduct and engine idling.

Manhattan

A couple was beaten and robbed by two men while leaving a McDonald's in the Garment District, police sources said.

The 31-year-old woman was attacked by a thug who hit her in the head and body on Eighth Avenue near West 35th Street on July 10 at about 7:45 a.m., cops said.

Her boyfriend intervened and a second suspect, Edgar Hernandez, 51, beat the beau over the head with a cane, police said.

The attackers then snatched a gold chain from the woman and fled toward 34th Street, cops added.

Hernandez was arrested five days later and charged with robbery.

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Coddling Kerry: Did mean Israelis hurt his feelings?

John Kerry fought in Vietnam, threw his medals away, served decades in the Senate, ran for president, did some windsurfing and then became secretary of state of the most powerful country on earth.

He's a big boy. But there are those who seem to feel otherwise, that Kerry is a fragile and tender reed in need of delicate care — people who work for and with him. Not to mention Kerry himself.

Over the course of the past year, on several occasions, Kerry and other staffers have taken to whining — not sure there's a nicer word — over how unfairly he's being written and talked about in Israel.

In January, after Israel's defense minister was twice quoted speaking disparagingly about Kerry's peace-process efforts and his nuclear diplomacy with Iran, Kerry actually called Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to complain.

This was an odd thing, given the relative power of Kerry and the relatively minor position of Moshe Ya'alon. Kerry could have brushed Yaalon's words off as a giant brushes off a fly.

But it was so hurtful to Kerry that he made sure the world knew about it. His spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said at a public briefing that Ya'alon's "comments were not constructive.

Secretary Kerry spoke with Prime Minister Netanyahu this morning, and he protested to him his concerns about these comments."

On Monday there came a tripartite barrage in Kerry's defense — from Psaki, presidential assistant Tony Blinken and National Security Adviser Susan Rice.

At a White House briefing, Blinken was asked to report on "the US response to the criticism that Sen. Kerry has come under in Israel after his attempts to implement a cease-fire there."

Blinken seized the opportunity so quickly it seemed clear he had determined beforehand to say these words: "Let me say this about Secretary Kerry: Israel has no better friend, no stronger defender.

No one has done more to help Israel achieve a secure and lasting peace. He has been tireless in his efforts."

It would be one thing for Kerry to go out of his way to praise Blinken; it is quite another for a lower-level staffer to praise someone who outranks him.

One would expect the president, say, to make a show of support for Kerry from the White House briefing room, but not a presidential underling. This is a strange case of political/PR "gifting up."

It's also worth noting that what Blinken said was wildly defensive and unconvincing on its face. Ten days ago, Kerry was caught on a "hot mic" at the "Fox News Sunday" studio speaking with bitter, angry irony about how Israel had claimed to be engaging in "pinpoint" operations.

At the same time, he was overheard telling his deputy that "I hope they don't think" the death of Israeli soldiers the night before was "an invitation to go do more. That better be the warning to them."

Were you aware that best friends issue unpleasant-sounding "warnings" to each other? If not, consider yourself warned.

Only moments after Blinken spoke, Psaki was asked about hostile reports in the Israeli media about the cease-fire plan Kerry had been fronting — with input from Hamas' patrons in Qatar and Turkey.

She complained about "anonymous sources" she claimed were issuing "misinformation" to Israeli journalists, and said this is "simply not the way that partners and allies treat each other."

After all, "I think anyone would be hard pressed to find a stronger partner and ally with Israel than Secretary Kerry."

Oh, you don't have to press me hard, Ms. Psaki. Just a very little bit.

A few hours after that, National Security Adviser Susan Rice also chimed in about "the extraordinary efforts of Secretary Kerry. I must tell you: We've been dismayed by some press reports in Israel mischaracterizing his efforts last week to achieve a cease-fire."

Perhaps those efforts were "mischaracterized," perhaps not.

The administration's self-defense hinges in large measure on whether Kerry had presented Israel with a cease-fire "proposal," or merely a "plan," a "discussion paper." Whatever it was, the Israeli Cabinet found it necessary to reject it unanimously.

With all this going on, Israel's ambassador to the United States also found it necessary on Monday to make a public display of gratitude to Kerry — an emotion it's somewhat doubtful anyone inside Israel genuinely feels these days.

"I speak directly for my prime minister here," Ambassador Ron Dermer said. "The criticism of Secretary Kerry for his good faith efforts to advance a sustainable cease-fire is unwarranted."

Now that's being diplomatic.

Maybe Kerry should take some lessons.

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Martha Stewart Living comes alive with profits

Looks like those traumatic pre-Christmas firings at Martha Stewart's struggling media company are finally paying off for the 72-year-old Domestic Diva.

Shares of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia inched up 2.3 percent on Tuesday, to $4.54, after it reported an operating profit of $2.2 million in the second quarter — only its third profitable quarter in the last 10.

A year earlier it had an operating loss of $636,000.

The return to profitability in the quarter came despite revenue tumbling 11 percent, to $37.6 million.

CEO Daniel Dienst, the scrap metal executive brought aboard last October to cut costs, said: "With the business stabilized, our business unit realignments behind us and efficiencies and productivity measures being rigorously monitored, we are now keenly focused on the many growth opportunities ahead of us across all verticals and all geographies."

The profit has come mainly by cuts. Production, distribution and editorial costs were chopped 20 percent, to $15.3 million, while selling and promotional costs dropped 17 percent, to $10.2 million.

The cuts outpaced advertising revenue declines in each segment, which continued apace.

In publishing, revenue dropped 8.1 percent, to $22.2 million, but the operating loss narrowed to $1.8 million, from $5.7 million a year earlier.

Beth Lilly, a small-cap portfolio manager at Gamco, said, Dientz's "goal is to get the publishing business to 5 percent operating margins and if he does that, the stock could really take off.

"To the extent that they generate [future] earnings, they won't have to pay taxes on it," Lilly said, noting the company has a net operating loss carry forward of $130 million.

"I have it rated a 'buy,' " said Michael Kupinski at Noble Financial, which upgraded MSO stock from a hold in February.

"The company management indicates that they are at an inflection point," said Kupinski, although he noted it may not be reflected in third-quarter results.

Kupinski said he expects the company to seek some kind of partnership to leverage its content in the digital realm and is hoping for a bigger international play.

Ken West, the chief financial officer, said the company is "debt free" and ended the quarter with cash equivalents and short-term investments of $61.7 million.

But, he added, "the only thing that we are very, very pleased with is our digital ad sales performance."

Dienst also said he is looking at expanding into the Chinese market for merchandising and the international market for publishing.

"The opportunity for more juice or explosive growth in our merchandise vertical will likely come from the international arena," the CEO said.

MSO is in talks with manufacturing partners, licensing partners and off-line and online retail players in places like the People's Republic of China, Dienst said.

Dienst also said he believes that "there is going to be land grab for branded content over the next 18 months and we fit very well into that potential macro development."

The minions in the empire of chief content officer and non-executive chairman Stewart may breathe a little easier in the next few quarters.

Dienst, in a conference call with Wall Street analysts, said, "I wouldn't expect, as we sit here today, unless the world falls apart, to wield the hatchet aggressively here over the next quarter or two."

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Twitter sings sweet numbers — for third time in a row

Three times a charm for Twitter CEO Dick Costolo.

The micro-blogging site hit all the right notes on Tuesday when it reported earnings for the three months ended in June — sending the stock up a sensational 33 percent in late trading.

It was Costolo's third time reporting earnings since Twitter took its stock public in a big splashy IPO last year. And it's the first earnings report that hasn't sent the stock plummeting amid fears that Twitter is having trouble growing and retaining users.

Costolo said revenue for the second quarter rose 124 percent over last year, to $312 million, well above Wall Street's expectations of $283 million in sales.

The company's losses widened to $144.6 million, or 24 cents a share, from losses of $42 million last year. But excluding expenses and items, Twitter earned 2 cents a share, above analysts' expectations for a net loss excluding items of 1 cent a share.

Twitter also raised its revenue forecast for the upcoming third quarter to between $330 million and $340 million, above analyst's projections for $324 million.

The stock jumped as much as 33 percent in late trading to above $50 a share after closing up 1.7 percent on Tuesday at $38.59 a share.

Costolo said monthly active users — a measure of how many people are using the site — hit 271 million by the end of June, an increase of 24 percent over last year. Timeline views — a measure of how much time users spend on the site — grew by 15 percent over last year, to 173 billion.

Timeline views had become a primary cause for consternation on Wall Street in the last two quarters when views fell below a high of 159 billion in the third quarter of 2013, before the company went public.

Costolo predicted continued user growth engagement from services like the one the company used around the FIFA World Cup in Brazil. Leading up to the World Cup games, Twitter allowed fans to more easily follow tweets around their favorite teams and on the games in general.

"That has given me confidence that we can create great user experience by organizing content around live events," Costolo said in the conference call.

He also said he expects the company to start benefiting from advertising dollars for logged-out users — or active users who check Twitter without logging in and retweeting.

Costolo continued to predict that Twitter will one day "reach the largest audience in the world" and "everyone on the planet."

Despite its second-quarter successes, Twitter still has a long way to go before it even catches up to Facebook, which boasts 1.3 billion monthly active users.

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Pearl of wisdom: Legend Monroe says Knicks a top 4 team in East

Knicks legend Earl Monroe sees some pearls on this Phil Jackson-inspired, revamped Knicks roster. The man known as "Earl The Pearl'' even believes Jackson's Knicks easily could finish in the top four in the wide-open Eastern Conference after failing to make the playoffs last season with a 37-45 record.

Monroe, the flashiest member on the Knicks' last title team in 1973, with Jackson as teammate, said he believes on paper only Indiana and Chicago boast a distinctly better roster. Sorry, LeBron.

"If these guys can get off to good start and stabilize what their roles are, I don't see why they can't be as good as the rest of the guys in the East,'' Monroe told The Post Tuesday. "I see them [in the top four] easily.''

Monroe said he feels new center Samuel Dalembert is no downgrade from departed Tyson Chandler. He likes the backcourt with newcomer Jose Calderon and Pablo Prigioni as cerebral point guards along with athletic shooting guards in Tim Hardaway Jr. and Iman Shumpert.

Monroe said he believes Carmelo Anthony still is getting better and predicts the enigmatic pair of swingman J.R. Smith and big man Andrea Bargnani can be salvaged by the triangle offense Jackson and coach Derek Fisher will employ.

Monroe also had high praise for Jackson, his old teammate.

"Whatever he does, he's an extension of us — the old Knicks,'' Monroe said. "I'm proud of what he's done for us.''

Monroe is still on the mend from six surgeries on his right knee since last July — the latest a knee replacement. Nevertheless, despite being in and out of the hospital, Monroe has invested time in his new candy business — sportscandystore.com — that wraps confectionaries in NBA-team logos.

Monroe certainly is sweet on the Knicks' moves, starting with Jackson snatching Calderon and Dalembert from Dallas.

"Obviously it's all part of the plan — it's important for Phil to have players who understand the game,'' Monroe said. "It's one of the reasons he went with Calderon. To have Prigioni, it's two guys who really understand the game. Add a couple of other guys with a lot of athletic ability in Hardaway and Shumpert, it's a great nucleus in the backcourt with those four guys.''

That doesn't include Smith, who has admitted to being a disaster for three-quarters of last season.

"A shooter like that can thrive in this situation if he buys into it,'' Monroe said.
Most experts have serious concerns up front with Dalembert and injury risks Amar'e Stoudemire and Bargnani. But Monroe doesn't see it as alarming.

"Tyson didn't give you much at all last year,'' Monroe said. "Since the year before, the Indiana series, he really hasn't really done anything since then. You're not losing a lot when getting a Dalembert. He plays the defense and he's bigger than Tyson and takes up more space underneath.

"And nobody's talking up Bargnani. He's a guy who can shoot from the outside as well anybody.''

Monroe didn't find it a surprise Anthony re-signed.

"I always thought, unless he's going somewhere where he could win a championship ASAP, and you know that, I figured he'd probably be here,'' Monroe said.

Despite Anthony's late-fourth-quarter ineffectiveness last season, he posted big numbers in averaging 27.4 points and a career-high 8.1 rebounds.

Does Jackson still have to shape Melo into a champion?

"I think Carmelo is shaped anyway,'' Monroe said. "A great offensive player playing in a system that'll be good for him. He gets a bad knock a lot of times. He takes a lot of shots, but he makes a lot of shots. Last year was one of his better years scoring the ball and in terms of rebounding and trying to get other guys involved. I thought it was tremendous year and he can still build on that.''

Even a rookie coach in Fisher doesn't scare Monroe.

"It goes to the credentials and credibility from Phil,'' Monroe said. "Everybody understands where Phil is at and knows why he got Derek. Even in the learning process, they can still fire away.''

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After stint in Turkey, Bogdanovic ready to help Nets

Bojan Bogdanovic first appeared at the Nets' practice facility in New Jersey three years ago, fresh from being selected by the team with the 31st overall selection in the 2011 NBA Draft.

But after spending the past three years playing in Turkey and after one near miss at coming to the NBA sooner, Bogdanovic was back in New Jersey Monday morning, where he was introduced as the biggest move of the team's offseason, a potential young building block for the team to lean on in the years ahead.

"I am glad and proud to finally come over to play for Brooklyn," Bogdanovic said with a smile while decked out in a suit and tie and seated in an interview room inside the practice facility. "I would like to thank [general manager] Billy King and all the staff from Brooklyn to bring me over, and of course I cannot wait to get started."

There were plenty of times over the past three years when it wasn't clear Bogdanovic's Nets career would ever get started. He seemed like a lock to be a first-round pick in June 2011, only to decide in the days leading up to that draft to sign a three-year contract with Fenerbahce Ulker — one of the top teams in Europe — that didn't have a buyout for the first two seasons.

After playing a key role for Fenerbahce in each of his first two seasons with the club, the 25-year-old Croatian nearly came to Brooklyn last summer, only to have negotiations between the Nets and his camp break down. Bogdanovic then wound up spending another season playing in Istanbul, while the Nets signed Andrei Kirilenko instead.

But Bogdanovic said despite the long wait, he always expected this would be his next basketball destination.

"[The Nets] drafted me three years ago, and every summer I thought it would be the time to bring me over," he said. "But this time finally came, and I'm very happy and proud about it."
The Nets are hoping for big things from the 6-foot-8 swingman, especially after opting to let Paul Pierce walk in free agency.

"Of course it's not going to be easy," Bogdanovic said of his transition to the NBA. "I have to do some adjustments, especially because there are a lot of games, [many] more than in Europe. But I am ready and I can help the team immediately."

Bogdanovic said several times he expects to contribute immediately, and he'll undoubtedly get a chance to do so. With Pierce out of the picture, the Nets have plenty of minutes to spare at small forward, where Bogdanovic could potentially step into a starting role.

At the very least, he should be in line to come off the bench as the sixth man, one capable of scoring both off the drive or off open looks from deep.

"First of all, I'm a shooter, but like I said, last year I improved my game a lot with the ball," he said. "I think I'm ready [for the NBA]."

The Nets think he is, too, and after waiting three years to get him into their uniform, they'll finally get to find out.

---

Bogdanovic is actually from the same town — Mostar — as Nets forward Mirza Teletovic, though Teletovic chose to play for Croatia, while Bogdanovic plays for Bosnia and Herzegovina. A third player from Mostar, Zoran Planinic, was drafted by the Nets in 1999, and played for them from 2003-06.

Although Bogdanovic said he hasn't spoken to Teletovic yet, he said he plans to begin training with the Croatian national team for the FIBA World Cup once he returns to Europe. The World Cup will take place in Spain beginning late next month.

"Of course I know him," he said of Teletovic with a smile. "He's from my hometown.

"We haven't talked yet about everything. But when I get back to Europe again, of course I will call him and ask him a lot of questions about Brooklyn, about the city and everything."

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Sofia Vergara brings buff new squeeze home to meet the family

SofÍa Vergara introduced her new boyfriend Joe Manganiello to her Colombian family last weekend, but the meeting may have been lost in translation.

Spies said that Vergara and the "True Blood" hunk — whom she's been dating since her split with fiancé Nick Loeb — were getting more serious in Florida when "they met for dinner with 12 members of Sofía's family at Makoto in Bal Harbour."

But "everyone at the table was speaking Spanish. Joe doesn't speak a word!"

When Manganiello, originally from Pittsburgh, slipped off to the restroom at one point as the family chatted, "one eager female fan was seen following him toward the loo."

But a quick-witted manager stopped the gal to give the actor his privacy.

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Mets make buy/sell decision tough, beat up on Phillies

If Sandy Alderson wants to break up the Mets, the Phillies might not make it easy on him.

The Mets returned to Citi Field and pounded Philadelphia, 7-1, smacking around A.J. Burnett for seven runs in five innings on Monday and have won three of their last four games.

They face at best an uphill battle to get back into contention, since the Mets still have to leapfrog five teams to get the second wild card.

But at least they were entertaining, scoring four runs in the first off the former Yankee Burnett, as Bartolo Colon blanked Philadelphia until being chased by back-to-back doubles in the eighth.

Colon surrendered 10 hits, but managed to stay out of trouble for the most part. He gave up one run over 7 ²/₃ innings and walked just one batter in his 121-pitch outing, a total that tied his season-high.

The 41-year-old had all the support he needed by the end of the first.

Daniel Murphy drove in Curtis Granderson with a double before Lucas Duda singled to score Murphy in the opening frame. Travis d'Arnaud doubled to send Duda to third and Juan Lagares snapped an 0-for-17 slump by capping the rally with a two-run double to make it 4-0 against Burnett (6-10).

D'Arnaud added a three-run homer in the fifth off Burnett, giving Colon (10-8) even more of a cushion.

Colon's future with the club is in doubt — even if he's not sent out by Thursday's non-waiver trade deadline, he could be traded in the offseason.

"We're not anxious to move him at this point," Alderson said before the game. "It could happen."

Chances are that no matter what the Mets do this week — or the rest of the season — they won't be contending for anything in 2014.

But if they are ever going to reverse their fortunes, d'Arnaud figures to play a major role.

Not only will he be entrusted with handling the pitching staff, the Mets will also be looking for the kind of offensive production they got from him Monday.

And Colon no doubt helped the Mets cause if they want to trade him for a bat — whether it's now or after the season.

The right-hander pitched around two singles in the third before a walk and two infield hits loaded the bases with two outs in the sixth.

Colon came back and struck out Cody Asche on three pitches to end the inning and keep the Phillies off the scoreboard.

Dana Eveland was knocked out of the game in the ninth after he was drilled near his left elbow by a Ben Revere liner. Vic Black came on to finish.

Before the game, manager Terry Collins said he thought his team would be able to put aside the distractions likely to surround them for much of this week.

"Half the time, nothing happens," Collins said. "As a matter of fact, the majority of time nothing happens. You've just got to go perform."

Colon has done that in his last two outings. After tossing a game in Seattle, where he brought a perfect game into the seventh, Colon was excellent again Monday.

While he didn't flirt with history thanks to a first-inning single by Marlon Byrd, he was efficient against an underachieving Phillies team that could look considerably different by the end of the week.

The Mets figure to have a more difficult time Tuesday, when the Phillies send Cole Hamels to the mound, but the visitors looked lifeless in the series opener.

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Murder verdict tossed because his mom couldn’t find a seat

Meet Daniel Floyd — the luckiest "killer" in New York.

The 23-year-old Brooklyn man was tried, convicted and sent to prison for 15-years-to-life when a jury found he shot a rival dead at a dice game. But the state's highest court overturned the guilty verdict — all because Floyd's mother couldn't find a seat in the courtroom during jury selection.

A juror who voted to convict Floyd was shocked to learn of the stunning reversal.

"On a technicality like there was no room in the courtroom! That's something new for me. I don't think that's right," said the woman, who didn't want her name used.

"Oh my gosh! This is very surprising, boy, because I didn't know people could get off once they were convicted," the 65-year-old public-school teacher said.

Melissa Floyd mother of Daniel Floyd leaves Brooklyn Supreme court on Monday. She found a seat this time.Photo: Riyad Hasan

On Monday, Floyd was back in a Brooklyn courtroom for a pre-retrial hearing, as was the heartbroken mother of the man he had been convicted of killing.

"It's very frustrating," said Linda Dixon Hill, whose son, Leon Hill, was gunned down in the March 9, 2008, gambling dispute.

"He was found guilty by a jury [and then] the Court of Appeals overturned it," she said sadly, adding that Leon's daughter was four months old when he was killed. She is now 6.

Floyd's conviction was tossed in an April 25, 2013, decision based on his trial lawyer's complaint to Brooklyn Supreme Court Judge Michael Gary that Melissa Floyd was forced to wait outside a courtroom that was packed with potential jurors.

"Defense counsel observed, 'Certainly, as a public spectator, she has an absolute right to be present,' " the decision states. "Defendants have a constitutional right to a 'public trial,' " the decision goes on, adding that overcrowding does not justify courtroom closure.

"This violation . . . requires a new trial," the judges ruled.

On his initial appeal, the Appellate Division had found Judge Gary's offer to get a seat for Floyd's mom once some juror candidates had been weeded out was sufficient — and upheld the conviction. But the higher court disagreed.

Melissa Floyd declined to comment as she left court. But jurors who convicted her son were shocked to hear of the judicial U-turn.

"That's a very bizarre reason," said a male juror, 31, of Crown Heights. "What difference would it have made to the jury selection if she had been in the courtroom?"

Floyd and Hill argued over money on the dice table. Floyd stormed out and returned 20 minutes later, according to court papers — and allegedly fired a fatal shot into Hill's neck.

Floyd's current defense attorney, Mario Romano, said they were mulling whether to accept a plea deal or go back to trial.

Floyd, who remains incarcerated, will next appear in court Sept. 12.

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Hondo messing with Texas

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July 28, 2014 | 11:13pm

The Brewers had Hondo foaming at the mouth Monday night when they dropped a one-runner to the Rays that raised the accounts payable to 1,485 hegans.

Tuesday night: Mr. Aitch will take a shot with some Yankee-style McCarthyism — 10 units on the Bombers to make life miserable in Texas for jolly old Nick Martinez.

---

Jets castoff Mark Sanchez seems to be enjoying Philadelphia, explaining, "The fans are a lot nicer now." Sanchez no doubt will learn that it's always sunny in Philadelphia — until your Buttfumble turns into a TD for the opposition and you turn your franchise into a league-wide joke … How do the Jets, 22-26 the last three years, decide every day which player is going to shoot his mouth off about how great he or the team is? Do Rex and Idzik make that call or are the players on their own?

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At dawn of camp, Giants’ Robert Ayers already talking Super Bowl

Robert Ayers wasn't thinking about a family reunion when he signed a two-year deal with the Giants. The Jersey City-bred defensive lineman came back home — after spending the first five years of his career in Denver — to get back to the Super Bowl.

"I want to get back to that situation — and I think this year is in Arizona — and that's all we're thinking about," he said before practice on Sunday. "That's all I think about. I want to win."

Ayers could serve a vital role for the Giants, as a veteran presence and key depth defensive lineman to help fill the void left by Justin Tuck.

The 28-year-old was a first-round pick (18th overall) in 2009 by the Broncos out of Tennessee, and while he failed to live up to the lofty potential in Denver for such a high draft choice, the sixth-year pro may be just coming into his own.

Ayers is coming off his best season, a 5 ¹/₂-sack, 23-tackle effort for Denver and berth in Super Bowl XLVIII at MetLife Stadium last February. Gaudy numbers especially because he received just three starts, being used as part of a rotation much the way he will be utilized with the Giants.

"I'm a guy that can help the team in a lot of ways, [play] a lot of different positions," Ayers said. "You can ask me to do a lot and I can get it done. I can play the run, I can rush the passer. … That's the thing the Giants take pride in. Mathias [Kiwanuka], [Jason Pierre-Paul], all those guys can play different positions, a lot of guys on defense are real versatile.

The 6-foot-3, 275-pound Ayers played down the significance of coming home as the reason he wound up with the Giants. While being back in the area has its positives — he sees family far more often and he gets to play for the team he followed growing up — Ayers is back in New Jersey because of the Giants' organization, not where it is located.

"I'm loving it, I'm loving the way they do things. That's the biggest thing," he said. "It's the Giants way. They do things under the radar. They are all about work and business."

Ayers isn't worried about stepping back into MetLife Stadium, where he absorbed that beating by the Seahawks last February. The past is just that. He's a Giant now. In his mind, Ayers was part of that disappointing 7-9 season, not a member of the AFC champion Broncos.

"I'm a Giant and I'm carrying the burden they carried last year," he said. "We're going to move forward that way and I have the same motivation they have, to get back to the playoffs and get things back going the way they used to. Get back to the playoffs and try to win it all."

Ayers grew up in downtrodden Jersey City and graduated from the Sacred Heart School. He played one year for Hoboken High School, reaching the state championship game at the old Meadowlands, but his family sent him to live with his aunt in South Carolina to get away from his troubled neighborhood. He blossomed at Marlboro County High School, found his calling as a dominant defensive lineman and landed a full ride to Tennessee.

Now he's back home, living out his dream, hoping to get back to the Big Game.

"It's always good to be this close to family. When you're tired, you can lean on them a little to help put a smile on your face," he said. "That's one thing my family has always done — they know how to make everyone laugh."

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The threat to New York City’s public spaces

Can New York keep its public spaces pleasant? To see the importance of policing "nuisance" crime, consider three key areas in Manhattan — Times Square, Bryant Park and the Columbus Circle fountain.

When then-Mayor Ed Koch wanted to turn part of Times Square into a pedestrian plaza in 1982, theater mogul Gerald Schoenfeld warned it would "become a place for vendors or three-card monte operators."

Twenty-five years later, Mayor Bloomberg did it — and Schoenfeld's prediction has come true.

Police Commissioner Bill Bratton joked to a Broadway Association lunch this month that "there is no longer a Broadway. It is…a trailway."

Cookie Monster, Elmo and other characters soliciting, er, donations are the "unintended consequences of a well-intended act," Bratton said.

That doesn't mean Bloomberg was wrong. By the mid-2000s, annual visitors to New York were up by 17.4 million over the 1990 level; tourism's up another 10 million since.

And almost everyone who comes to town stops by Times Square. With other added foot traffic from workers from new office towers and commuters from new apartments to the east, tearing out the pedestrian plazas would be untenable.

But so is the disorder that now plagues the square.

Consider what happened last Thursday night around 6:45.

In town from Denver, Troy, 50, and his daughter Sarah, 20, were walking on the sidewalk (not the plaza) at 47th and 7th when someone giving out "free" CDs crammed one into Sarah's hand. As the tourists walked away, the man and his companion asked for a "donation." Troy took out his wallet to give him $2. "He looked in my wallet," Troy said. "He said, 'You can afford to give me more.'"

So Troy handed over more.

Asked if he felt pressured, Troy laughed "yes."

George Kelling pioneered the theory of "Broken Windows" policing — of combating "nuisance" crime to prevent worse offenses — and now advises the NYPD.

He warns that "just like squeegee-ing" in the '90s, "there's implicit extortion and intimidation" in the Times Square hucksters.

Tim Tompkins of the Times Square Alliance sees it "again and again and again." A "naïve or vulnerable" mother with a child, or a group of young women, will start off "amused and engaged," he says. Then they face a demand for money — and find themselves surrounded by more characters.

"Cumulatively, these smaller acts of aggression and boundary-crossing" are harmful, he warns.

What to do? The topless painted ladies, pamphleteers, hawkers and CD "donors" have their legal rights; the cops can't just haul them off. Lawmakers are trying to figure it out.

But no serious person is saying we shouldn't do anything — proving that maintaining control of an urban space still matters.

That's not true just of policing. Part of Broken Windows is showing that law-abiding people care about the physical space, too.

Bryant Park, another dense public space, succeeds in part because it's so perfectly kept that it sends people cues as to how to behave. "Attention to detail" is critical, says Dan Biederman, head of the private group that runs the park. "We can't have litter, we can't have graffiti."

Times Square is not Bryant Park. People come to Times Square to see crazy stuff.

Still, the concept holds. The part of Times Square that works better — if not perfectly — right now is the completed pedestrian plaza.

Every table that the city has put out is occupied by people doing what they're supposed to do: eat, rest, people-watch. The big red "sitcase" by the TKTS booth is also a successful "place."

But the rest of the square is a mess. "One of the disconcerting features at the moment is there's so much construction" to build the rest of the plazas, Bratton said.

Barriers are random. Walking directions are unclear. Traffic agents are overwhelmed, not in control. Sidewalks are covered in gum, and paint everywhere is chipped. Buildings are covered in scaffolding. Hot-dog trucks block walkers, as do tour-bus on some sidestreets.

Can't the city find assertive ambassadors to direct traffic? Having a person in authority cheerfully telling people to move along when a light changes until they get to a place where they can hang out would reduce frustration.

Temporary construction at a much more modest public space, too, reminds us that broken-windows theory matters.

These last few years, the small Columbus Circle park has become a great place for New Yorkers (not tourists). But now, the fountain is off (being renovated), meaning fewer people sitting on the benches. Skateboarders moved in, using the little park as a skate course.

The boarders have taken over most evenings, making it miserable to even scurry through.

Skateboarding in the park is illegal. Yet nobody kicks them out — and residents have given up asking.

When you can't sit in your neighborhood space without being scared that an illegal skateboarder is going to land on you, that's disorder.

It's startling how quickly a nice place can become a menacing one, because the surroundings have deteriorated and lawbreakers have taken over.

Nicole Gelinas is a contributing editor to the Manhattan Institute's City Journal.

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Why a drug bust means hope for Venezuela

The Netherlands' decision to release powerful retired Venezuelan general Hugo Carvajal in Aruba, arrested Wednesday at the request of US law enforcement, is a boon to the narcostate in Caracas. It will make it easier for the Obama administration to continue ignoring the corrupt and repressive regime in Venezuela.

What happens in Venezuela matters here. It's the world's ninth-largest oil exporter, with the largest proven petroleum reserves of any country. And that nation of 30 million people and a $400 billion economy has disproportionate influence in the Americas.

Its government has spent billions of dollars on Russian arms and abetted the criminal activities of Iran and Hezbollah.

And the Carvajal arrest could've rip the veil off the regime's alliance with Colombian narcotraffickers.

Were federal prosecutors lay out their case against Carvajal in a New York courtroom, they'd reveal the involvement of dozens of senior Venezuelan officials in narcotrafficking and related crimes — exposing the regime's lawlessness.

These revelations would have a devastating impact on a government that has been falling apart since the death of leftist strongman Hugo Chávez in March 2013.

His successor, Nicolás Maduro, is wrestling with an oil sector faltering thanks to colossal corruption and mismanagement, a collapsing economy, rampant street crime and expanding political unrest. Worse, the money's running out, as Caracas spends down its dwindling international reserves.

Maduro's failings have cost him the support of very poor Venezuelans who depend on government handouts and are weary of routine food shortages and blackouts.

Worse for Maduro, a cadre of Chavista military leaders have never supported him, particularly since he was promoted to the presidency over one of their own, Diosdado Cabello.

Cabello controls the National Assembly, the party machine and key elements of the military, and has used his power to wage a clandestine turf war to undermine Maduro.

Chronic food shortages and rampant street crime touched off nationwide protests in February, led by idealistic university students and joined by key opposition leaders. Maduro ordered a violent crackdown against the protesters.

While most military units remained in their barracks, national guardsmen supported thuggish militias as they waged street battles against students that left dozens dead and thousands more injured or jailed.

A bipartisan group on Capitol Hill called on the Obama administration to respond to this violence and the persecution of the opposition by pulling visas or freezing the assets of officials with blood on their hands.

But the administration has refused to act — even after Maduro scuttled talks with the opposition and placed its principal leader, Leopoldo López, on trial last week for inciting violence.

Yet Maduro's biggest headache, according to regime insiders, is within his own movement.

A battle has been raging for months within chavismo over Maduro's mishandling of the economy, the rampant corruption and his deference to Cuban advisers.

The rank-and-file military is particularly disgusted by the use of Cuban-trained thugs to beat and murder protesters.

Carvajal's arrest should've begun exposing the regime's criminal enterprises — and more. Since he's one of the key henchmen who've been rooting out threats to Maduro from within the ruling party, plucking him off the chessboard would wreak havoc in an already unsteady regime.

For too long, the careerists running Latin America policy in the State Department have done their best to do nothing in Venezuela, largely downplaying the regime's deep and broad ties to narcotrafficking and neglecting that country's descent into dictatorship.

The Carvajal arrest shows that US law-enforcement officials have been doing their jobs, but US diplomats failed again.

The United States should demand an explanation of the sudden Dutch decision to respect Carvajal's claim of diplomatic immunity. That the Netherlands put him on a plane home Sunday night should be another black eye for US diplomacy.

If it wants to show it gives a damn about Venezuela, the Obama administration should, at long last, sanction Venezuelan officials who keep their criminal regime in power by killing protesters and persecuting the democratic opposition.

That is literally the very least it can do.

Roger F. Noriega was US ambassador to the Organization of Amer­ican States and assistant secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, 2001 to 2005, and is an American Enterprise Institute visiting fellow. His firm, Vision Americas LLC, represents US and foreign clients.

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Chris Young is a doubles machine

MILWAUKEE — Chris Young is showing his gratitude for getting another chance in the Mets lineup.

The beleaguered outfielder finished 2-for-4 with two doubles in the Mets' 2-0 victory over the Brewers on Sunday. A night earlier, Young also doubled twice.

"I think I've been able to get my at-bats to be bunched a little closer together to where it has allowed me to make an adjustment a little quicker," Young said. "If you play a game and then you can go work on something and play the next game, I think that's a big advantage as far as try to make the adjustments and feel better at the plate."

Young, who is batting .207 with eight homers and 27 RBIs, said he hasn't given up on this season. The Mets signed the veteran outfielder to a one-year deal worth $7.25 million last offseason.

"There's still quite a few games left and there's still things that can be done on the positive side to help this team," Young said. "That continues to be my goal."

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Mets manager Terry Collins wasn't happy to see Juan Lagares dive headfirst into first base in the eighth inning as he attempted to beat out a grounder. The situation was addressed, according to Collins.

"I know he doesn't read the newspapers very much, but anybody who has been hurt in the last two months, it's all about diving into bases," Collins said. "[Ryan] Zimmerman to [Bryce] Harper, anyone who has been out for a long time."

---

Jeurys Familia worked a perfect eighth to extend his scoreless innings streak to eight since July 6. The right-hander has allowed only one earned run since June 12 and has posted a 0.44 ERA over that stretch.

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With a double in the sixth and single in the eighth inning, Daniel Murphy moved into a first-place tie with Hunter Pence in the National League with 125 hits for the season. Pence, however, passed Murphy Sunday night when he recorded an RBI single in the third inning of the Giants' game against the Dodgers.

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Baseball: When a mammoth of a man is brought to tears

COOPERSTOWN — The Big Hurt became the Big Cry.

Slugger Frank Thomas broke down in tears right from the start of his Baseball Hall of Fame induction speech Sunday at the Clark Center.

Thomas, Joe Torre, Tom Glavine, Greg Maddux, Bobby Cox and Tony La Russa were all inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame on Sunday.

Thomas thanked everyone in his speech, including 138 former teammates.

"I had to cut out 50 names,'' Thomas said at the end of his special day.

Thomas said it was the first time in 15 years his mother, Charlie Mae, had left Columbus, Ga., the town where Thomas was raised.

Thomas became particularly emotional when speaking about his dad, Frank Sr., who died in 2001. His father's words of advice rang home.

"You can be someone special if you really work at it,'' Thomas recalled his father saying. "I took that to heart, Pops, and look where we are today.''

The estimated crowd of about 50,000 was the third largest in the history of the induction ceremony.

At the end of the speech, Thomas, who has criticized PED use in baseball, said, "To all you kids out there, just remember one thing from today. There's no shortcuts to success. Hard work, dedication, commitment, stay true to who you are.''

Later he said he did not want to mention PEDs on this day, but he wanted to get his point across.

"It's a special weekend I just didn't think stuff was necessary,'' Thomas said. "We all know what happened over the last 15 years in baseball. Today was a bright stage and I wanted to get that out to kids, don't do what others say is cool, stay true to yourself.''

There were other inspirational moments in the long day, with Maddux saying, "I learned to want to be great. That made the difference.''

Glavine made sure to thank his parents.

"They gave me the two things you want the most as a kid: Their time and a good example," Glavine said. "Saying 'thank you', is certainly not enough. But thank you.''

There was levity, too. Cox, who was beloved by his players, talked about the time he came out to visit Glavine on the mound, saying they should intentionally walk the batter. The bases were already loaded. He told his players there would be a $1,000 fine if word got out of his mistake.

Maddux started off by praising his older brother, Mike, for teaching him about baseball and about how to be a prankster.

"He even taught me a little bit about science. It has to do with a little methane and a lighter, and I still get a huge kick out of it today,'' Maddux said.

Yes, passing gas.

The crowd laughed and Maddux added, "That's funny, huh, OK.''

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How the UN was perverted into a weapon against Israel

In his new book, "Making David Into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel" (Encounter Books), Joshua Muravchik, a fellow at Johns Hopkins University's School of Advanced International Studies, details the historic campaign to demonize the Mideast's one consistent democracy. Here, he explains how the United Nations went from being an ally to Israel to one of its biggest threats.

The United Nations Human Rights Council has voted to create an "independent international commission of inquiry to investigate all violations of international humanitarian law and international human-rights law" in the current war in Gaza.

Well, actually, not all violations. Only those attributable to Israel — as the resolution makes quite explicit.

And what might those violations be? The very same resolution spells them out, not as allegations but as established findings. "The Council," it reads, "condemns in the strongest terms the widespread, systematic and gross violations of international human rights and fundamental freedoms arising from the Israeli military operations…since 13 June 2014."

In other words, Israel's guilt is already established, and the mandated "investigation" is but a method of punishing Israel by subjecting it to months of verbal laceration and then perhaps sanctions. As the Queen of Hearts said in Wonderland: "Sentence first! Verdict afterwards."

Hamas is not subject to "investigation." Its role is to be the star witness for the prosecution. This is not spelled out, but we know the script.

Four years ago, when Israeli forces last entered Gaza, this same council passed a similar resolution, condemning Israel and mandating an "investigation."

This was the Goldstone Commission, and its principal source of information was testimony at hearings in Gaza arranged by Hamas where witnesses detailed the toll of Israeli strikes while denying the presence of military targets.

Even if not all of them were Hamas members, all knew what Hamas expected them to say — and none would dare defy it.

Richard Goldstone's report accused Israel of "crimes against humanity," a special category of crime invented for Nazi war criminals. Two years later, Goldstone renounced his report, saying: "If I had known then what I know now, the Goldstone Report would have been a different document."

More likely, what changed was not Goldstone's knowledge but his inability to defend his work to the outside world once he was no longer ensconced in the anti-Israel hothouse that is the United Nations.

This, after all, is the same organization whose General Assembly chastises Israel three times as often as all other countries combined; that has declared Palestinian terrorism to be a "legitimate" means of "fulfilling…one of the goals and purposes of the United Nations"; that once classified Zionism as a form of racism; and that has three special bodies devoted exclusively to agitating against Israel although no other such body exists for any other country.

This astounding bias was not always present. In 1947, the UN voted to partition Palestine, thus legitimating Israel's birth, and Israel was soon granted admission as a member.

In 1967 and 1973, UN Security Council resolutions 242 and 338 called for "secure and recognized boundaries," thus implicitly acknowledging that Israel need not relinquish all of the territory captured in the Six Day War.

Israeli forces have launched a ground incursion into Gaza.Photo: UPI

How did it all turn around so dramatically? During its early decades, in the aftermath of World War II, when American power and prestige was high, the US largely dominated the UN.

Washington pressured its European allies to relinquish their empires, and the UN pushed decolonization.

Thus were scores of new nations born in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. The UN grew from 51 to 193 members.

Many formed the Non-Aligned Movement. Originally this meant non-aligned in the Cold War, but NAM did not disappear with that conflict.

Today it has 120 members, thus controlling every UN body except the Security Council where the "Permanent Five" hold vetoes.

Fifty-seven of the NAM's 120 members are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, meaning that the OIC dominates the NAM. And the core of the OIC is the 22-strong Arab League.

An Israeli army self-propelled howitzer 155m cannon fires a shell.Photo: Getty Images

Thus, through telescoping leverage have the Arab states turned the UN into a kind of crusade organization against Israel.

The complement to the NAM/OIC/Arab dynamic was also on display in the Human Rights Council's recent action.

Twenty-nine states voted for this blatantly prejudiced resolution, of which 21 are not free, according to Freedom House, making their presence on the council absurd. The United States alone voted "no."

England, France, Germany, Italy and other free countries abstained. Beset by guilt over their colonial pasts, Europeans rarely buck the NAM.

This mindset works against Israel in the UN and beyond. In an era of "the rest against the West," when global cultural elites find virtue only with the "rest," Israel remains largely "Western."

For this, it has been sentenced. The predetermined verdict will follow.

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Knicks’ Prigioni: ‘Completely sure we will play much better’

Pablo Prigioni has done this before — backing up Jose Calderon at point guard. The Argentine and Spaniard were teammates in the Spanish League years ago with Tau Ceramica de Vitoria and now they have been reunited in Phil Jackson's all-international point guard tandem with the Knicks.

Prigioni is delighted to have Calderon — the Knicks' biggest offseason acquisition. And he's just as thrilled Carmelo Anthony re-signed on the dotted line.

Prigioni said his wife and Calderon's wife have remained friends.

"I'm very happy to have the opportunity to play with Jose one more time," Prigioni told The Post on Saturday. "We played together in Spain and we did really well. He is a great player and very good professional, a great 3-point shooting guy. He can run the team and read the game very well and is a good defender. He has all that a good point guard must have."

But Prigioni and Calderon, who both have a pass-first mentality, could be on opposite sides in late August, early September.

Prigioni began training camp two days ago for Team Argentina and Calderon for Spain, which is starting to loom as a favorite of the FIBA World Championship following Kevin Love's withdrawal Saturday from Team USA because of his uncertain future.

With Anthony sitting this one out, the Knicks have no player on Team USA (Tim Hardaway Jr. is on the practice team in Las Vegas training camp). But Prigioni is excited Anthony rejoined his team in New York.

"When I saw Melo re-sign, the first thing I did was send him a message saying that I was so happy to have a chance to still play with him," Prigioni said. "And I told him that I'm sure we will play much better next season."

Though Prigioni's advanced analytics numbers stood out (the club's efficiency was far better when he was on the floor), the Knicks sputtered to a nightmarish 37-45 record in a playoff-less year in Prigioni's second season in New York. A big improvement, Prigioni believes, is in store.

"Last year was bad for us," Prigioni said. "We have a lot of issues in the first three months. And then when we start to win games and play better but it was too late. I'm trying to forget last year and put my head into the next season. I'm very excited with the changes that the team is doing and I'm completely sure we will play much better. That is my big wish. Play good basketball and make the fans enjoy watching the team play. I feel that we are a strong, serious team."

Part of the optimism is Prigioni's faith in new coach Derek Fisher, the longtime point guard. They haven't spoken yet and won't until after the Worlds.

"I think he is a perfect guy to be our coach this year," Prigioni said. "He has a strong personality to be our leader, a lot of [playing] experience and knows exactly how this league is going. As a great point guard, for sure he can help Jose, the other point guards and me with all his experience. I feel I'm very lucky because I have [had] the opportunity to play with Jason Kidd, And now play for Derek. Two great point guards in the NBA."

The triangle offense is geared to ball movement and proper cutting, which appears right up Prigioni's alley. But neither Prigioni or Calderon will play the triangle for his respective national team.

Prigioni said he is "excited to learn" the new system because it has succeeded in the past.

He's not as sure about Argentina's chances at the Worlds because Carlos Delfino is not on the club and Manu Ginobili hasn't yet decided. It may be a long shot to duplicate Argentina's run to The Finals in the soccer World Cup in Brazil.

Prigioni knows a few of the soccer team's players and has met Messi a handful of times.

"The guys played with heart and gave everything," Prigioni said. "Most important, the team gave a very good image to the world."

Prigioni said he hopes he can say the same about the Knicks one day.

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Red Bulls’ biggest star debating calling it quits

Thierry Henry hasn't announced whether he will retire at the end of the MLS season or play on, but Red Bull Head of Global Soccer Gerard Houllier said he expects the French superstar to hang up his cleats — and admits whether he does or not, the team needs a third Designated Player.

"I'll have a talk with Thierry soon. I've got an idea of his intention. I think he wants to retire," the Paris-based Houllier said after the Red Bulls' 1-0 friendly win over Arsenal on Saturday. "I think he wants to retire, but we need to check. His performance was good."

Henry will turn 37 next month, and the 4 ¹/₂–year contract he signed following the 2010 World Cup expires after this season. He has been coy about his plans, and said only "we'll see after the season."

The striker declined comment on Houllier's statements, but Houllier said whatever Henry decides will impact the kind of player the Red Bulls target this summer.

Whether Henry retires or not, Houllier acknowledged they will be looking to land another Designated Player to pair with Henry and Tim Cahill — and possibly to take the torch from Henry.

"We are looking at … several options. But we want to make sure we take the right one, otherwise, we will wait until the end of the season," said Houllier, who flew in from Los Angeles on Saturday morning. "We're looking at a third one, but we're looking at different targets."

Red Bulls sporting director Andy Roxburgh — who is based in the United States and reports to Houllier — told The Post the club has funds to add another Designated Player, but said that could just as easily come in the winter if the right targets aren't available.

Houllier echoed that, but said he can see whatever addition the team makes having a huge impact going forward.

"We don't want to spend as much as we did before [on Henry and Cahill]. Probably we definitely need a DP," Houllier said. "But we need to take the right person, and I think the team will go through another cycle. But I'm pleased with the way they played [Saturday]."

The Red Bulls upset FA Cup champion Arsenal, and Henry — who has an MLS-high 10 assists — notched another against his former club when he set up Bradley Wright-Phillips' goal. But with the Red Bulls just 5-6-9 and fourth in the MLS's Eastern Conference, this performance just set the bar higher and underscored the club's underachievement.

"That game showed we can do better than we have," said Houllier, who nonetheless added he is "happy with the job [Roxburgh and coach Mike Petke] have done so far."

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Another rough start for Niese in Mets’ loss

MILWAUKEE — Jon Niese was Mr. Dependability before hitting the disabled list earlier this month, but still has cobwebs to shake since his return.

Not that this Mets lineup gave him much room for error Saturday night.

With Niese shaky during a key fifth inning and the big hit nowhere to be found, the Mets fell 5-2 to the Brewers in front of 39,292 at Miller Park.

The loss left the Mets (49-55) needing a victory in Sunday's series finale to reach .500 for the 10-game road trip.

That might be an obtainable goal with phenom Jacob deGrom set to pitch, but also isn't the kind of start for which the Mets had hoped after winning eight of 10 games to close the first half.

Niese (5-6) lasted only five innings and allowed three earned runs on five hits with two walks and four strikeouts.

The lefty also scuffled at Seattle in his return from the DL on Monday, when he surrendered four earned runs over six innings. The performance against the Mariners snapped Niese's streak of 21 straight starts in which he had allowed three earned runs or fewer.

Niese got battered in the fifth, allowing three runs on four hits to put the Mets in a 3-2 hole. Jonathan Lucroy's shot off the center-field fence for an RBI double tied it before Ryan Braun put the Brewers ahead with a run-scoring single.

Earlier in the inning, Niese had unloaded a wild pitch that allowed Jean Segura to score from third. Segura had stolen second and taken third on the pitcher Wily Peralta's fly out.

Mark Reynolds connected for a solo homer in the sixth against Carlos Torres to extend the Brewers' lead to 4-2 and Khris Davis' RBI single in the eighth added another. The homer was the second allowed by Torres in his last three appearances.

Chris Young doubled in the sixth and eighth innings, but on both occasions was left stranded. In the eighth, Wilmer Flores was caught looking at strike three from lefty Will Smith.

Curtis Granderson slapped a full-count pitch just inside the right-field foul pole in the fifth for a solo homer that gave the Mets a 2-0 lead. The homer was Granderson's first since the All-Star break and gave him 15 this season.

Lucas Duda's RBI single in the third gave the Mets a 1-0 lead. Granderson doubled leading off the inning to snap an 0-for-18 skid, and David Wright walked with one out before Duda delivered.

A night earlier Duda was the hero with a two-run homer in the ninth inning against Francisco Rodriguez that put the Mets in position for a 3-2 victory.

"The thing that has helped Lucas is the fact he is not just a pull hitter," manager Terry Collins said before the game. "He's hit the ball and used the big part of the field a little more, because he's got enough power to not necessarily hit homers, but get some extra-base hits and drive in some runs in the big part of the park.

"He's done a nice job. He wants to be an everyday guy, and certainly he's waging a war to be that guy. He's feeling pretty good about what is going on offensively and he has a little game plan.

He's going to home plate with an idea of what he wants to do, but his confidence is way up."

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Lovers found dead in hotel may have had suicide pact: cops

Two lovers found locked in a final embrace in a Staten Island hotel room may have had a suicide pact, law-enforcement sources said.

While grieving family and friends were mystified by the deaths of Scott Jacobi, 35, and Theresa Mateo, 37, sources said the two exchanged text messages that indicated they were depressed — but investigators don't know what caused the malaise.

Several bottles of pills were found inside the room at the Hilton Garden Inn, where Jacobi and Mateo checked in on Wednesday evening but never checked out, sources said.

The fully clothed bodies were discovered on the bed by a hotel staffer, who checked the room Friday afternoon. There were no signs of violence and no suicide note was found.

The city Medical Examiner said a cause of death is pending, but the NYPD believes it was an intentional overdose, sources said.

Mateo, of The Bronx, was the controller at a Manhattan medical facility called the Rogosin Institute, which researches kidney disease. There was no indication she was despondent, a childhood friend told The Post.

"She was always a happy person, always bubbly, never [did] anything negative come out of her mouth," Angela Saltarelli said.

Mateo and Jacobi, of Staten Island, had been dating on and off, sources said. Their families declined to comment.

With Erin Calabrese

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My awkward call with the late great Alan ‘Ace’ Greenberg

Ace Greenberg liked to play cards. Bridge was his favorite game, but he was known to keep a deck of cards on his desk to distract himself from the rigors of Wall Street trading.

But in 1987, or it could have been 1988, Ace and I played a different game — cat and mouse.

Back at the time I was writing a financial column called "The Bottom Line" for New York Magazine. Corporate takeovers were big then, and I was breaking news about companies going after other companies and corporate raiders making a nuisance of themselves.

Alan "Ace" Greenberg, who died Friday from cancer at the age of 86, was running Bear Stearns at the time. He was a legend on Wall Street and in bridge circles.

And mostly because of Greenberg, Bear had become a favorite of corporate raiders who would buy a big stake in companies through that brokerage firm and then — using that leverage of those purchases — got the target's management to do whatever the raiders wanted.

The raiders were making lots of money. Bear Stearns was doing a lot of business. And I was filling up a bunch of columns. So it was all good — for a while.

I started to notice there were leaks when many of these raiders had accumulated stock. The rule was that buyers would have to file with the Securities and Exchange Commission whenever they purchased 5 percent or more of a company's shares.

But word was leaking out whenever someone got to, say, 4.9 percent or 4.5 percent. In other words, someone wanted the world to know that the company was under attack, but he didn't want to get the SEC involved.

This bothered me, but not for the reason you might think. Sure, people were gaming the system and manipulating the shares of the targeted company. And, yes, that was a bad thing. It was even illegal.

But here's what really bothered me: I wasn't the one getting the leaked information for my column. The leaks were going to another journalist and I was at a competitive disadvantage.

That's when I called Ace. I told him that I was working on a column about leaks coming out of Bear and asked if he'd like to comment. He denied there were any leaks, of course. But it really didn't matter because I wasn't seriously going to write that column.

What I was really trying to do was alert Greenberg to the leaks and say — in my own cute way — "why don't you tell whoever is doing it to either stop or share some of them with me." I didn't say that out loud, but that's how I hoped Ace would interpret it.

Months later Bear Stearns put out a very odd press release announcing that some low-level clerk had been let go from the firm. It wasn't the sort of firing that companies would normally announce publicly, but there it was in a press release.

I knew what it meant. Ace had found the leak, plugged it and wanted the world to know without going into any of the details.

This story would be good enough if it ended there. But years later, and after Ace had retired, I recounted the leaker's story to him. I didn't see Ace very often and this was the first time I got the nerve to bring up the clerk's firing. I remember Ace mumbling to me, "I think we got the wrong guy."

That probably bothered Greenberg enormously because he was, by all accounts, a fair man who particularly liked Wall Streeters who were just starting out in the business.

Mary Ramsey King, a friend of mine, remembers Greenberg fondly from her stint at Bear Stearns that started in 1983. "He was a great guy. He was my mentor," King said. "I always knew, if I needed something, I could call him and he'd always take my call."

Ace probably wished he hadn't taken that one particular call from me.

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Millionaires are taking over New York City: survey

Millionaires are taking Manhattan.

New York is set to become the leading home of high net-worth individuals — surpassing Tokyo to have more millionaires than any other city in the world, a new survey shows.

New York's millionaire population is forecast to grow 31 percent by 2023, rising from 389,100 to 508,100, according to research firm WealthInsight. Right now the city is ranked fourth for millionaires, with 4.63 percent of the population fitting the millionaire criteria — or one out of every 22 New Yorkers.

As the financial epicenter of the world, New York not only attracts home-grown and foreign talent, but also serves as a playground for millionaires to splash around their personal cash.

"As emerging economies are creating more millionaires than before, this latter factor has become much more important," WealthInsight analyst Oliver Williams said.

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Former WWE champion subdues burglar at his home

PHOENIX — A former WWE champion known as Daniel Bryan chased two burglary suspects he saw exiting his Phoenix home this week and subdued one until officers arrived, investigators said.

According to police, Bryan Danielson and his wife, Brianna, drove into the carport of their Arcadia home and saw a door to the house start to open.

That's when Danielson and his wife, a fellow former WWE star known as Brie Bella, ran inside to check on their dog, Josie.

"I saw the guys running out the back. I chased them. I caught one of them. I kept him until police got there," Danielson said.

Danielson and Cesar Sosa, 22, got into a struggle, but the former champ subdued him until officers arrived, Phoenix police Sgt. Tommy Thompson said. The second suspect got away.

The former champ said he didn't have to apply the "Yes! lock" — his signature move— to get Sosa to surrender, but he did put him in a rear naked choke hold.

"Unfortunately, he wasn't in very good shape," Danielson said. "So, it didn't take much."

Sosa was arrested and faces a burglary charge. It was not known if he had an attorney who could be reached for comment.

WWE wrestler Daniel Bryan with his wife, WWE diva Brie Bella.Photo: Getty Images

Thompson said Sosa also had a felony warrant for burglary and kidnapping in another case.

Danielson said he was happy his neighbors called 911 to report suspicious activity about 10 minutes before the couple arrived. He said his wife had just picked him up from the airport.

"I got really angry at first," Danielson said. "They're actually lucky that I got them instead of Brie, because she probably would have been a little more violent."

Brianna Danielson said that while her husband went chasing the intruders, she found Josie hiding in the couple's bathroom.

"We didn't know if they had Josie, too," she said.

Danielson, known for his "Yes!" chants, is recovering from a previous injury.

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Daily Blotter

Brooklyn

■ The men pictured above are wanted for snatching a Jesus pendant and two gold chains at gunpoint in Flatlands, cops said.

The crooks are suspected of pulling a handgun on two men at about 9 p.m. on July 12 at Utica Avenue near Avenue H, cops said.

The robbers fled with a Jesus pendant on a gold chain worth $2,000, and ­another chain valued at $300, cops said.

The suspect  in a white hat is believed to be approximately 6-foot-2, and his accomplice is ­5-foot-8 with braided hair.

■ Two suspects in a Flatbush shooting were busted an hour and a half after the attack when their getaway car was pulled over for a broken taillight, law-enforcement authorities said.

Yasser Julio, 34, allegedly blasted a rival in the leg on Albemarle Road near Ocean Avenue at 7:45 p.m. Tuesday, then jumped into a waiting 2009 Mercedes-Benz, officials said.

Cops in an unmarked car flagged down the white vehicle for the busted light just before 9:15 p.m. near Brooklyn Avenue and Winthrop Street, and noticed a knife in the glove compartment when driver Bianca Blackford, 26, reached for her ID, police said.

Cops took Julio from the passenger seat and found a loaded .38-caliber revolver with one spent shell in his front pocket, officials said.

A plastic bag of what is believed to be crack was also found in the Mercedes, cops added.

Julio and Blackford were hit with a slew of charges, including attempted murder and felony assault, said ­authorities.

The 23-year-old shooting victim was in stable condition at Kings County Hospital, authorities said.

---

 The Bronx

■ A Belmont man stabbed by his brother last week has died, cops said.

Joseph Brown, 59, was fighting with Richard Brown in their home on Hughes Avenue near East 182nd Street at 11 p.m. on July 18 when Joseph pulled a knife and stabbed Richard, according to police.

Richard was rushed to St. Barnabas Hospital in critical condition and died Thursday, cops said.

The DA's Office is deciding whether to upgrade the current assault rap against ­Joseph.

■ A transgender woman was assaulted in an alleged bias attack in the South Bronx, law-enforcement authorities said.

The 29-year-old victim told police she was walking on East 149th Street near Third Avenue at 1 a.m. Wednesday when two men started following her, yelling "faggot" and "Patty Boy," police sources said.

The thugs followed her into a deli, and one told the clerk not to serve her, police sources said.

The victim was then hit in the head multiple times, sustaining a cut to the ear, she told police.

The men fled the store, according to law-enforcement sources.

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 Queens

■ Two men  have been linked to a theft in Woodhaven after using a stolen MetroCard, police said.

The crooks used a credit card swiped in the same theft to buy clothing and gas on June 29, cops said.

They used the Metro­Card in the Woodhaven Boulevard R-train station the same day, cops said.

When they used the Metro­Card the following day in Harlem, cops got surveillance pics of them at the 125th Street D-train station, authorities said.

Police are looking for a man between 30 and 45 years old, last seen wearing a black short-sleeve shirt with white headphones.

His accomplice, believed to be between 40 and 50, was last seen wearing a black hat and a black long-sleeve shirt.

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 Staten Island

■ Two big winners at a private poker game were held up in New Dorp, cops said.

The men, 28 and 31, had just scored thousands of dollars in a night of poker at a friend's house on Robin Road near Sand Lane when they were approached by two armed men who followed them to their cars at about 1:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to law-enforcement sources.

"Run your pockets," one of the culprits said. "Give me everything!" The gunmen swiped more than $5,000 in cash, the sources said.

They also stole a Michael Kors watch, an iPhone, a Samsung cellphone and a pack of cigarettes from the men, the sources said.

One thug then pistol-whipped one victim before fleeing with the cohort in a a vehicle that had been parked nearby at Father ­Capodanno Boulevard and Sand Lane, the sources said.

Police said they couldn't track the iPhone because the culprits had turned it off.

The Staten Island Robbery Squad is investigating the incident.

The pistol-whipped victim was treated at Staten Island University Hospital for cuts and bruises to the face and head, police sources said.

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