Tuesday, November 11, 2025
We’re just past the midway point of September, the month that traditionally signifies key flashpoints in two very competitive American pastimes: Major League Baseball and American politics.
Before MLB initiated division play and wild cards, there were just two leagues, the National and American, and the team with the best record in each league at the close of the regular season, at the end of September, made it to the World Series. That made the league pennant races do-or-die. Sudden death. No “postseason” or second chances.
There were years in which the pennant race had as much drama and tension as the World Series. In 1951, for instance, the Brooklyn Dodgers and the New York Giants finished the regular season in a dead heat, necessitating a three-game playoff, which the Giants won on Bobby Thompson’s three-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 3 — the fabled “shot heard around the world.” That was one of the most famous moments in baseball history, and the fact that the Giants went on to lose the World Series to the Yankees is barely a footnote.
Now there six divisions, and 12 teams qualify for the postseason, taking away the sudden-death aspect. The flip side of the coin is that with more teams in the hunt and more games to be played, there’s sustained fan interest almost to November. That’s especially welcome news for New York fans this year, since neither the Yankees nor the Mets will win their division, but both are good position to be wild card teams.
And the postseason is a brand new ball game. Last season, the Mets won postseason series over the Brewers and the Phillies, both of which had finished ahead of the Mets in the regular season. The Mets then pushed the Dodgers to six games before finally succumbing, falling short of the World Series by just two games. This year’s September challenge for the Mets is to make sure they nab a wild card slot so they can go on to October, where anything can happen.
Much like baseball, the American political season begins in earnest after Labor Day. Voters are back from vacation or home from the beach. All that went before was but a prelude to the nine-week race that won’t end until late on election night, Nov. 4.
This campaign run to the finish is both a sprint and a marathon. Having run for elective office 19 times, I can tell you that a campaign is both exhilarating and exhausting. A candidate who has run a serious race should have nothing left at the end.
This is especially true in Nassau County, where there are few easy races. I assure you that despite Bruce Blakeman’s excellent record as county executive, with Nassau being rated the safest county in the United States and no tax increases, he is not taking his re-election for granted. Yes, polls show that Blakeman has a solid lead over his challenger, Democratic County Legislator Seth Koslow, but he also knows there are 100,000 more registered Democrats than Republicans in Nassau County.
Blakeman remembers just four years ago, when he was the challenger and incumbent County Executive Laura Curran was the frontrunner, clearly leading in the polls. But Blakeman waged a strong, hard-fought campaign, and on election night in November 2021, he was victorious.
Similarly, in the race for county district attorney that same year, Democratic State Sen. Todd Kaminsky was the clear favorite over career prosecutor Anne Donnelly, a Republican. The consensus among political insiders was that Kaminsky would use the D.A.’s office as a steppingstone to state attorney general, and then governor. But Donnelly ran as a strict law-and-order candidate, opposed to the so-called “bail reform” legislation supported by Kaminsky. Election night saw a landslide win for Donnelly.
While national and statewide races get the most media attention, it’s county and town races that are closest to, and most intense for, voters. There are no flyover candidates or Rose Garden campaigns. The candidates are right there in our communities, at local events. We see them up close, and get to know who they are and what they stand for. And the issues are ones that affect us directly: safe streets and neighborhoods, support for our police, preventing tax increases and creating jobs. All of it leading to Nov 4, Election Day, the World Series of politics.
