Only in Boston, Massachusetts can local sports fans enjoy a weekend like this past one. The city is home to the best team, record-wise, in all of Major League Baseball, the 16-8 Red Sox.

The Red Sox began the month of May back home after taking two of three from the reeling, faltering, fumbling, "bad-adjective-of-your-choice," New York Yankees. The Sox are 5-1 against the Yanks this season. Folks are smelling October baseball over the pre-summer barbecues. Life is good for the Olde Towne Team. Naturally, the New England Patriots ain't playin' this game.

I'm having a little trouble deciding if the Sox are Lindsay Lohan and the Pats are Paris Hilton. I'm only leaning this way because of the red connection of Lohan and the Sox.

Our two teams are media divas, playfully outwitting each other for the back page headlines in town. Lindsay decides to stumble out of a club at four in the morning, then Paris can't help herself and goes for a spin after a couple cocktails. It's all about the ink, baby!

Instead of celebrating a beautiful start to the baseball season, we're playing amateur psychologist, wondering if the Patriots have lost their way in drafting Miami University's Lord of the Stomp, safety Brandon Merriweather, then icing the offseason cake with wide receiver Randy Moss. The Pats are different, they say. They no longer can cling to the higher moral ground, they grouse. Instead of protecting the integrity of the team, they have decided winning trumps all.

My take? I don't care. At least not yet.

For crying out loud, people. The Patriots didn't play a down this weekend. Yet, on the way to work, at the crack of 6 a.m., I hear John Dennis launch into a passionate monologue on WEEI about how the Patriots, as an organization, have changed their stripes. Know when I'll give a flying Elvis about the Patriots? Sunday, September 9 at 1 p.m., that's when. Until then, can we stomach a little Sawks tawk?

I wanted to take a little time before checking in on the '07 Sox. More specifically, I wanted to see the Sox, and specifically Daisuke Matsuzaka, go into Yankee Stadium and play the Yankees. I'm well aware of what month it is. I checked into it, and they're gonna keep April before October for a little bit longer. So what. Taking five of six from the Yankees is good stuff. Doing it by coming from behind in each and every win shows me something, as well. Hey, the '04 team also started out by winning five of the first six against New York, and that worked out swimmingly for that team. The '03 team started out 18-9 through April, and that was a pretty good season, too, up until a really bad night in October in the Bronx. Moving on, stat.

The seemingly endless point is that such a good start can usually lead to postseason baseball, which is probably the goal of a $143 million collection of ballplayers. And since I can't whine anymore about the money race between New York and the rest of baseball anymore, I say go for the throat now. No mercy. We do not train to be merciful in this dojo.

Boston comes out of April playing well. This makes me giddy and also makes me want to throw up things. I've been through these hot starts before, and they don't seem to end well. However, a couple things help temper the fear of fall failure. (And you thought that English degree would prove useless…)

* Pitching.  The obvious strength of the team going into the season has been just about as good as advertised. Starters one through five have 13 quality starts so far. I haven't the first clue what makes a start quality, but people seem to think this is a good thing, so I'm happy.

Josh Beckett has the quietest 5-0 record I can recall, and Sanguin Sock Schilling has found time in between blogging to rebound nicely from a terrible opening day start to go 3-1. Tim Wakefield is a tough luck 2-3, but with a 2.59 ERA, is hardly struggling. And while warming the rubber for Jon Lester, Julian Tavarez has done exactly what a fifth starter should do, which is not be terrible.

Then there's the smiling guy from the rising sun. Again, I wanted to reserve judgment on the Diceman until he had officially been thrown in the fire in New York. While not spectacular, Sox fans had to be impressed at his ability to come back from the ledge after a disastrous fourth inning, walking the bases loaded, then giving up a typical Jorge Posada popper into the outfield. Man, he irritates me.

Anyway, he gives up four runs in the bottom of the fourth, then comes back to get the side in order in the fifth. So, he didn't strike out fifteen, give up only two hits, and throw a 92 pitch complete game. He beat the Yankees, in the Bronx. I walk the bases loaded, then end up giving up four runs to the Yankees, I'm going into the clubhouse and softly sobbing to Barry Manilow's greatest hits and a nice merlot.

Because the starters have given all those nifty quality starts, ipso ergo facto, the Sox bullpen hasn't been overworked, and has looked great when called upon. Hideki Okajima was supposed to be here only as Dice's wingman, and instead has turned into the main bridge to closer Jonathan Papelbon, allowing one run on his first major league pitch, then ripping off 12 2/3 scoreless innings. Meanwhile, Papelbon has continued to make me psyched that Massachusetts allows civil unions. Y'know, just in case.

* Manny not being Manny.  I'm not sure what shocks me more, how much Manny Ramirez looks like Predator, or that he is going to come to the plate on May 2 with a .202 batting average. It makes one wonder, if one is prone to aimless wondering, what the Sox will be able to do if the pitching stays consistently good, and Manny gets his groove back.

Look, come September, I will be sporting my Randy Moss jersey, drinking coach Bill Belichick's magic potion, and preparing to head to Arizona for Super Bowl XXXXXYZTUV. In the meantime, let's take a second to drink in the real story in Boston today, the smoking hot Lindsay Lohans.