Good to be in Boston these days

BOSTON -- Forgive those Boston sports fans who don't feel comfortable with all this success.

"I hope we don't have bandwagon fans that just want to follow along and just want to be winners," said Paul Hutchinson as he walked through Boston Common on Monday. "I hope the folks that want to be Red Sox fans are Red Sox fans because they like the opera of it all."

There is plenty of uplifting music in Boston these days -- from the Red Sox to the Patriots to the Celtics to Boston College. Granted, the Patriots and the Red Sox are no strangers to good times of late, but it has been more than two decades since Boston has had this much to cheer about:

• The Red Sox are in their second World Series in four years. They came from 3-1 down to defeat the Cleveland Indians for the American League pennant and will face the Colorado Rockies in the World Series beginning Wednesday night.

• The Patriots are 7-0 for the first time and Tom Brady is 2 touchdowns shy of surpassing his career high of 28 TDs in a season … with nine games left.

• The Celtics start their season next week with big expectations and a new "Big Three" in Kevin Garnett, Ray Allen and Paul Pierce.

• Boston College is No. 2 in college football, its highest ranking since 1942.

• The New England Revolution is playing in its sixth straight Major League Soccer playoffs.

• Even the usually terrible Boston Bruins are off to a strong start.

"It's due after all these years. The Celtics are going to be great. The Bruins, I guess, have a great record right now," said Adam Sainsbury, who was wearing a Patriots shirt and a Red Sox hat. "I think the Red Sox can definitely pull it off against the Rockies."

It hasn't been this much fun to be a sports fan in this area since 1986, when the Celtics, the Red Sox and the Patriots all played in championship games.

"Twenty years later, the stars are aligning once again," said Hutchinson, a Boston University employee from Hancock, N.H. "It's all coming back and it's all going on here."

But die-hard fans remember what 1986 eventually brought. The Red Sox lost the World Series to the New York Mets and the Bears drubbed the Patriots 46-10.

That title the Celtics won? It was the city's last until the 2001 season, when the Patriots upset the St. Louis Rams in the Super Bowl.

Ray Cryan, a 63-year-old state employee, said younger generations may start taking winning for granted because it's all they know. Older fans, he says, won't forget the pain inflicted by their beloved teams.

"They've never going to let their hearts totally go," said Cryan, wearing a Red Sox cap on an unusually sunny day. "They don't want to get hurt."

Those fans remember the ball that rolled through Bill Buckner's legs and the death of Len Bias hours after he was drafted by the Celtics. That's as much a part of being a Boston fan as Curt Schilling's bloody sock or Bill Belichick's genius.

And that's one lesson Hutchinson plans to teach his 2½-month-old daughter Charlotte, just as his father reminds him of the 1975 World Series tickets he was forced to give away as he awaited the birth of his son.

"We will drive that into her head," he said, his tiny daughter asleep against his white Boston jersey. "Every day, she will hear about the curse. She'll hear about if you ever need proof of what faith is, it's the 2004 World Series and all that. She'll get that in rich detail."

Fans hardly know what to do with all the joy.

The crowd started chanting "Let's go Red Sox" during the Patriots' 49-28 blowout -- in Miami. David Ortiz did pregame interviews before Game 7 against the Indians in a Patriots hat and shirt.

Red Sox manager Terry Francona was asked Monday about playing in the hottest sports city in the country.

"I've got to tell you, when I interviewed here I didn't care about the Patriots," he said. "I wasn't asked any questions (about them). I didn't know (Jeff) Jagodzinski was going to be the coach at BC. That really didn't enter into it.

"I'm thrilled for them. I'm a big Doc Rivers fan. I love the Celtics. I watch the games when they're on the West Coast, but that's not going to help us beat the Rockies."