E-Mail This Article to a Friend A fall sports preview By Christopher Young

Never in local sports history have the region’s baseball and football teams both entered the fall as world champs. As the Patriots prepare to defend their back-to-back titles, the Red Sox find themselves in the unfamiliar position of aiming for a second-straight World Series crown.

But even as those two squads dominate the area’s sports passion, there are a lot more unfolding stories that should whet the appetites of New England sports fans. Indeed, it will be an autumn like no other, and here are some of the reasons why.

Football. Old hat? Old helmet? Will it ever be as satisfying and comfortable as it is right now to be a New England Patriots fan? Not likely, although ask folks 12 months from now if Bill Belichick’s bunch manage to capture an unprecedented third-straight Lombardi trophy. After 42 years without anything resembling a championship, the Patriots have remarkably grabbed three out of the last four and are looking to do something that has never been done before in the 40-year history of the Super Bowl. Can they do it? Friday’s "Sporting Eye" NFL preview on these pages may provide insight into that, but in the meantime, lots of oddsmakers feel that the Pats are still far and away the class of the league. Sure, the team is tackling uncharted waters in terms of coaching defections and defensive-backfield departures, but most of the principals remain in place, and that’s why the region’s pro football fans again feel optimistic.

On the college side, Boston College is venturing into new territory as it begins its inaugural season in the ACC. Whether pigskin fans around here will care as much about seeing the likes of Duke, NC State, and Wake Forest instead of past Big East foes Syracuse, Pitt, and UConn remains to be seen, but it’s still a bold gamble by the BC program and should help the school in terms of recruiting in both football and basketball.

Baseball. A year ago, it was unquestionably an exciting time for the local nine and their fans. The title-starved Red Sox had shaved 7.5 games off a once-insurmountable Yankee lead and trailed the Pinstripers by just two and a half games after a remarkable August stretch that subsequently vaulted them into the wild-card slot. Twelve months ago, Boston was 82-54 and surging, but today, even with "just" an 80-56 mark, the team is three games up and has trailed in the AL East for only one day since June 23. Without mentioning names, the term "choke" is reserved for other teams these days, and exorcised Sox fans have no reason to believe that their squad will squander the cushion it’s held for nearly 10 straight weeks. Winning the division for the first time since 1995 holds potential benefits later on, not the least of which is the possibility of holding home-field advantage through all three rounds of the upcoming post-season. Given Boston’s majors-best 46-21 home record, hosting any series’s deciding game could pay dividends.

Hockey. Yes, hockey. With all the good stuff fans savored last fall, the one black cloud that hovered over the local landscape was the possibility of an NHL lockout — one that ultimately came to fruition and ended up wiping out the entire season. No such dread lurks this fall, as those hockey fans who still care will have a chance to see a reconstituted Black & Gold product get back to the business of returning Lord Stanley’s chalice to our fair city for the first time in 33 seasons. Oh sure, some of the names and faces have changed, but many of the key ingredients that carried Boston to the second-best record in the Eastern Conference in 2003-’04 remain in place, and that bodes well for the Bruins’ hockey-starved fans.

Basketball. Who knows how the Celtics’ meltdown in game seven of last spring’s opening-round playoff series against Indy will affect this year’s team? Still, it’s easy to forget that the C’s were surprising Atlantic Division champs last year, and that only Antoine Walker will be missing from a squad that seems to be focusing on youth and athleticism in the upcoming campaign. And while I don’t expect that poutin’ Paul Pierce and head coach Doc Rivers will be seeing eye-to-eye anytime soon, the Celtics’ program is in much better shape now than it was a decade ago — and indications are a title contender is slowly being shaped.

Soccer. Who can forget the local soccer franchise? You? For shame. The Revolution got off to a hot start and have barely let up. The Revs boast MLS’s best record, and have lost only once in 12 home matches. Come November, they could be bringing home the region’s first pro soccer title.

Unfortunately for them and their backers, the eyes of local sports fans — as noted above — may be looking elsewhere.

Sporting Eye runs Mondays and Fridays at BostonPhoenix.com, and Christopher Young can be reached at cyoung[a]phx.com