With the last three days of the Major League Baseball season upon us, I've thought of how a baseball season is akin to a political race. Being it's a Friday and everything should be lighter on a Friday, let's look at this more closely.

A campaign, like the 162-game major league season is a marathon, not a sprint, a bad day in a campaign can be overcome the next day or week by a good showing and a mistake today could back and haunt a candidate in the crucial final weeks. Some candidates go out to an early lead and cruise winning two out of three games every series while some teams lead for the entire race and all of a sudden find themselves tied with one series left and momentum going against them.

A great example of this is the New York Mets, a team that has held a lead in the National League East since May and has been up on the Philadelphia Phillies by seven games as little as two weeks ago. Last night the Phillies won, the dreaded Mets lost and now they find themselves tied with three left. Compare that to erstwhile New Yorker Hillary Clinton, she's led by a huge margin and at the halfway point appears a sure fire nominee. That's when the real season starts, the campaign's September if you will. The campaign's all-star break will be when the primaries produce nominees, the stretch drive is next summer through fall when the solid teams rise and the lesser teams fall. Rudy would be the equivalent of the Yankees, never give up even when the spotlight is brightest and every mistake is magnified by a brutal media. Just keep plodding along steadily, rely on your big hitters and get quality starts from your staff and before you know it, you're in the playoffs.

Does Hillary having the pitching staff to beat Rudy's hitters? How good is Rudy's bullpen? Can Fred Thompson win with an inexperienced bench? Can Barack Obama win with a team that's young and fresh out of triple A?

As we speak, numerous teams have a shot at the playoffs in the NL, just like the GOP nomination. It comes down to three games to see who claims the final three spots and who has the energy to suck it up and play when it counts most. Rudy, Fred Thompson, Mitt Romney and the spoiler John McCain are all vying for the playoffs and it will be an amazing race to watch, just like the fight for the playoffs in baseball.

For the record, I like Hillary in the AL with VP/wildcard Barack Obama. In the NL, I like Rudy with VP/wildcard Fred Thompson. But, just like Yogi Berra quipped "it ain't over til it's over."

Feel free to add any more methaphors in comments. By the way, Go Phillies!