Blues legend Frankie hails club's resilience ahead of Wembley final
SOUTHEND United legend Frankie Banks has hailed the club's resilience ahead of Sunday' s National League play-off final against Oldham Athletic.
Blues have fought back from the edge of liquidation to set up this weekend's promotion decider with the Latics at Wembley.
READ MORE: Shrimpers given more tickets for Wembley
And Banks - who has been associated with the Shrimpers since the 1960s - hopes Kevin Maher's side can complete a remarkable turnaround by getting into the EFL.
'Sunday means a lot and it would mean an awful lot to get back into the Football League,' said Frankie.
'We've done really, really well considering the lows we've been through but now we're on a high and hopefully those highs will carry us through on Sunday.
'It's been a privilege to be part of really because we've been through some bad times and we thought we were going to fold.
'But we bounced back and the resilience has been fantastic.
'We could have been another Bury but people stood by us and the support is unbelievable.'
And Frankie believes victory on Sunday would be among the best moments of the club's history.
'Victory on Sunday would be right up there with anything the club has achieved,' said Frankie.
'I know we've won promotion and been to Wembley before but because we were nearly extinct and have bounced back it shows the resilience of this club.
"Everyone has been fantastic.
'It's been tough but hopefully we'll finish it off now and I'm very optimistic.
"I think we'll win 1-0."

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New York Times
38 minutes ago
- New York Times
Old friends Scott Harris, Jed Hoyer find themselves in first place again
CHICAGO — Last season, when the Chicago Cubs hosted the Detroit Tigers, it wasn't exactly a stress test for the friendship of the teams' respective presidents of baseball operations, Jed Hoyer and Scott Harris. The two friends, former co-workers and now professional equals, could instead commiserate over their sub-.500 teams. Advertisement After losing two of three at Wrigley Field on Aug. 22, Harris' Tigers were 62-66 and in front of just the lowly White Sox in the AL Central. Meanwhile, Hoyer's Cubs were treading water at 63-65. It was a long way from 2016, but one of their teams was about to take off. After the series, the Tigers traveled crosstown to play those aforementioned lowly White Sox, and they swept them to start an unexpected 24-10 run to the playoffs, where they won a wild-card series against Houston before losing to Cleveland in five games in the divisional round. Detroit sold at the trade deadline and somehow found itself a game away from the ALCS. Hoyer had plenty of time to watch the Tigers' playoff surprise because his Cubs finished 83-79, six games behind the third wild-card spot. Fast forward to today where the Tigers (41-23) have the best record in the American League and the Cubs (39-23) have the best record in the National League, and now maybe this fraternal rivalry has taken on a little edge as the Cubs head to Detroit for a three-game weekend series. I'm not saying it's a World Series preview, but it's not out of the question either. Both of these teams are playing like legit contenders. 'He's gonna be rage texting me during the games,' Harris predicted. 'I don't know that I'm going to respond.' 'I love it,' Hoyer said with a laugh. 'I'm such a 'rage texter.'' Chris Getz, the general manager of the White Sox, likes to joke that Hoyer thinks everyone is watching Cubs games, a personality quirk that Harris doesn't dispute. 'Sometimes it feels like he treats me as if I still work for him, which I do not,' he said. 'I'm actually two stops beyond working for him at this point. But he's obsessed with making the Cubs better, and that's the way his mind works. I think that's one of the reasons why they're successful.' Harris grew up in the business emulating Theo Epstein and Hoyer, so his approach to the job is not dissimilar. That is why he got a president of baseball operations gig before he turned 40. He was hired at 25 by the Cubs in the fall of 2012 to be their director of baseball operations. Seven years and one World Series ring later, he was an assistant GM when the San Francisco Giants hired him as their general manager. Three years after that, Detroit made him its president of baseball operations at 36. He brought along former Cubs assistant GM Jeff Greenberg, who was working for the Chicago Blackhawks. Advertisement Harris became nationally known during the Cubs' World Series run when ESPN's Wright Thompson profiled savior-in-chief Theo Epstein and included a scene from the front office suite where Harris was force-feeding himself bread at Epstein's behest for rallying purposes. 'I'm an easy target,' Harris said at a 'Pitch Talks' event in 2017. 'Just being the young guy, you can't really say no to anything. But I think the best part about Theo and Jed is they really create a fun and inclusive environment.' In reality, Harris wasn't just the kid in the room. He was an important part of the team's baseball operations department. Hoyer said they hired him knowing he'd be a GM one day soon and wanted to benefit from his services. 'It wasn't that Scott was just learning from us,' Hoyer said. 'I think he was contributing a ton as well. He's super curious, and I think that's probably one of his greatest strengths. He was always asking questions, always trying to advance and broaden his skill set. That's served him incredibly well, because I think he certainly learned a lot in his time in Chicago, but I think he learned a lot (in) his time in San Francisco from Farhan (Zaidi) as well. I think he's combined what he's learned at an exceptional level.' Reporters could never get much out of Harris in Chicago. He was friendly, sarcastic and was game to talk about anything … except the secrets we tried to pry out of him. His loyalty was with his bosses. 'I had two of the best mentors anyone could ask for in Theo and Jed,' he said. 'I learned about leadership and how to build a whole organization, as opposed to just a major-league team that's winning baseball games. I think Theo and Jed were both hyper-focused on that. I also really benefited from the experience of seeing the whole cycle in Chicago. Advertisement 'When I first started, I think we lost 96 games that year, and a few years later, we were on buses in a parade down Michigan Ave. And so seeing that whole cycle, you know, play out helps me collect a set of experiences that allow me to use some pattern recognition, like 'I've seen this before.' I've seen this player get to this level before. I've seen what it can do if you challenge a player to elevate a certain aspect of this game.' Whatever he's doing is working. The Tigers broke a nine-year playoff drought last season. This year, they are second in the AL in runs scored and are in the top 10 in most pitching stats. PECOTA projected them fourth in the AL Central before the season and now they're atop the entire AL. In March, the MLB Pipeline crew ranked Detroit as having the top farm system in the game. The Athletic's Keith Law ranked it seventh in January, which was down a spot from the year before. These are the prospects drafted and developed by Harris, Greenberg and their front office. Law ranked the Tigers' system 30th going into Harris' first season in charge, but the team's big-league roster is now full of players drafted in the Al Avila regime, led by the best pitcher in baseball in Tarik Skubal (who starts Friday against the Cubs) and hitters like Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, Dillon Dingler and Kerry Carpenter. What the Tigers seem to be doing well now, as opposed to before, is player development, the secret sauce to any successful organization. The young Tigers are improving and thriving. The farm system, headlined by A-ball hitters Max Clark and Kevin McGonigle, has time to mature. 'We set out to build a team full of young players that can win big-league games in different ways,' Harris said. 'I think that's the team that we have right now. This is a really fun team to watch, and it's a team that is just scratching the surface.' Meanwhile, Hoyer's vision for the Cubs is finally taking shape. He has a mix of veterans and young players, powered by a pair of MVP candidates in Kyle Tucker and Pete Crow-Armstrong. Like the Tigers, the Cubs are just a fun watch. They score a lot of runs in a variety of ways. Advertisement 'I think the longer I do this, the more I root for people as opposed to teams,' Harris said. 'There's a lot of good people in that organization. Jed is certainly one of them. When we're playing each other this weekend, I'm not going to pull for them. But I pull for a lot of these guys because I want them to be successful, and they built a hell of a team this year.' I joked with Hoyer that the Tigers are his 'AL team,' like when kids have a second-favorite team to root for. 'You don't spend that much time with people over a 10-year period and you develop real friendship,' Hoyer said. 'I've spent more time with Jeff and with Scott than probably any two people other than my wife during that period. I love how hard they work there, and obviously, watching their success at the end of last year and then this year, they deserve all of the credit.' Hoyer is also close friends with Detroit manager A.J. Hinch from their San Diego days, and the Cubs' former media relations guy, Peter Chase, landed in Detroit this season. And of course, there's Javy Báez, who has reinvigorated his career this season after hip surgery last year. Báez's last game of 2024 was that Aug. 22 loss in Chicago. He finished the season with a .184/.221/.294 slash line, and it looked like a DFA could be in his future. He had 'sunk cost' written all over him. That the team took off when he went on the shelf didn't go unnoticed. Much like his former star teammate in Chicago, Kris Bryant, Báez hadn't done much since signing a six-year, $140 million contract in Detroit before the 2022 season (and before Harris got there), making Hoyer look prescient, if not a little late, for his 2021 dismantling of the World Series core. In 216 total games in 2023-24, Baez hit just 15 homers and slugged .315. He came into spring training and said he'd play wherever Hinch wanted, but who would've thought he'd play such a big role on a first-place team again? Advertisement When Parker Meadows got hurt, Báez moved to center field. He thrived. 'A.J. knows I like playing outfield and I shag good in BP out there,' Báez said. 'With so many injuries that we had in spring training, he came to me and mentioned it, and I started smiling. So he knew it was a yes from me.' With Meadows back, Báez returned to the infield during the White Sox series and reminded people he's still El Mago. #JavierBáez — Javier Báez Page (@ElMagoJavy28) June 4, 2025 'For me, the best version of Javy is the one that's playing free and loose, the one that is just finding ways to help a team win,' Harris said. 'He's such a gifted athlete with elite baseball instincts, and when you surround him with a good baseball team, I think he finds ways to enhance the overall position playing group.' Báez was always one of Hoyer's favorite players, and if not for the pandemic, they might have nailed down a deal to keep him in Chicago. But Hoyer is doing more than fine with the guy Báez was traded for, Crow-Armstrong. It's looking like one of the best trades in Cubs history. Watching both on the same field this weekend should be a treat for baseball fans and executives. While Harris traveled to the North Side last season for the series, Hoyer won't be able to make the trip. 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New York Times
38 minutes ago
- New York Times
Mets' Griffin Canning opens up on career revival in New York, struggles with Angels
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Canning's best pitch is his slider, but he didn't throw it as much in his final season with the Angels. Its usage has gone from 24.1 percent in 2024 to 32.9 percent this year. With that has come a dip in his four-seam fastball usage, which has gone from a primary option to a more strategic one. 'It was difficult. We had four or five different managers and four or five different pitching coaches with the Angels,' Canning said. 'Sometimes a new guy comes in and maybe doesn't necessarily know you as well. Or just different organizational philosophies when people come in and out.' Advertisement The results speak for themselves. His fastball is resulting in whiffs on 19.5 percent of swings, compared to 14.8 percent last year. The hard-hit percentage has decreased to 44.4 percent, compared to 51.4 percent in 2024. The batting average against and slugging percentage against have steeply declined. All while his slider effectiveness has increased across all the same metrics. 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I don't think it's a bad thing — sometimes they don't want guys to go down that rabbit hole, and worry about those kinds of things.' On Wednesday night, Canning had his best start of the season. Six shutout innings, seven strikeouts, no walks, just three hits. On the season, his home runs per nine innings dropped to 0.9 from 1.6. Hard contact against him has been fewer and farther between. 'Much different,' said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. 'Obviously, he's healthy. The stuff is playing up. The velocity is up. There's a cutter, the slider is good, there's a changeup. He's a much better pitcher, more weapons than he's had in the past.' Advertisement The Angels have long struggled to develop starting pitching, particularly pitchers that they drafted. Their recent history is littered with examples of arms who haven't evolved in the way they hoped. Canning is arguably the most concrete example of this. He was drafted in the second round in 2017. By 2019, he was the organization's top pitching prospect, behind only Jo Adell on the overall leaderboard. There was hope he'd be a legit ace-level pitcher. Instead, it was a half-dozen years of injuries and ineffectiveness. Culminating in his worst season, and a career inflection point. Now, Canning is that ace-level starter on the best team in the National League. He's a pending free agent, and if he continues to pitch well, he will command a haul on the open market. New York is a different animal from Anaheim. It's a younger and more lively crowd, Canning said, with a great knowledge of the game. But it also invites a ton of pressure — a demand for success that isn't matched anywhere else. The good news for Canning is that he's satisfied and exceeded every expectation. To save his career and be a critical piece of what the Mets hope is a historic season. 'They thought they could bring me in and see some success,' Canning said. 'I think it's a testament to the culture. A big aspect of it is being on more of a winning team. Not playing for yourself as much, but playing for the 25 other guys, has been helpful for me in particular.' The Athletic's Fabian Ardaya contributed reporting to this story. (Top Photo: Harry How / Getty Images)


Washington Post
2 hours ago
- Washington Post
Patrick Corbin finally got a fresh start. He's taking advantage of it.
In the last five years of his six-year contract with the Washington Nationals, Patrick Corbin never ended a season with an ERA better than 4.66. Three times in those five years, he led the National League in losses. His longest streak of starts allowing three runs or fewer was seven, and he did that once. Other than that, he never compiled a streak longer than four.