Home Field Advantages : The action is between the white lines, but here’s what you’ll find in your corner of the ballpark this season.

Take me out to the ballgame.

The plea is almost as old as the game of baseball itself. But this year, there’s more than just peanuts and Cracker Jack to draw fans out with the crowds at the Big A and Dodger Stadium. Indeed, the 1997 season will be one of historic transition.

The season begins Tuesday for the Dodgers and Wednesday for the Angels. First, however, the teams close out their spring exhibition schedules by facing each other in the traditional Freeway Series on Friday night at Dodger Stadium and Saturday and Sunday at Anaheim Stadium.

For the Angels, this season will be the first to open without Gene Autry in the saddle. Autry, who brought the club into the American League in 1961, turned the franchise over to Disney last May, and while Disney has enjoyed enormous success marketing its theme parks, motion pictures and hockey team, its first try at selling baseball was hardly a home run.

In its truncated first season, the new management team paraded cheerleaders through the stands, held between-innings contests and blasted high-decibel rock music from the Big A sound system. The goal was to lure new fans to the park, but the effect was a flood of angry complaints from longtime season-ticket holders and other loyal supporters.

“We were in a learning curve,” says Tony Tavares, president of Anaheim Sports. “The intent of doing all these things was . . . to provide entertainment. I’ll readily admit it didn’t work.”

“We learned a lot last season,” adds Bill Robertson, director of communications for Anaheim Sports. And the most obvious lesson was that “hard-core baseball fans want something more traditional.”

So team officials have responded by clipping the Angel Wings, the club’s perky squad of hot-pants-clad cheerleaders, turning down the music and eliminating the myriad between-innings distractions that competed with the action on the field. In addition, the Big A’s Diamondvision scoreboard will display more player statistics and baseball-related videos than last year, and fan giveaways, which dot every homestand, will lean more toward the traditional as well with caps, T-shirts and trading cards among the items to be handed out.

But the Angels haven’t gone completely retro. Extracurricular activities, such as visits by the club’s secret new “interactive squad” as well as a variety of mascots, will continue to take place, but they’ll be largely confined to the view level, where families tend to congregate.

“We’re going to have a host of new elements this season,” Robertson promised. “We’re going to do a lot of things to get families involved . . . that won’t take away from the action on the field.”

Another draw that won’t interfere with action on the field will be the updated stadium menu. Traditional items such as hot dogs and ice cream will still be available, as will fan favorites such as imported beers and mammoth cinnamon buns. But they will be joined this year by new items such as hot wings, which will be known at the Big A as Angel Wings. (There’s that name again.)

Concession stands won’t be the only venues doing brisk business inside the stadium. With the Angels unveiling new uniforms this season, fans will have to rush the park’s 10 souvenir stands and two gift shops to pick up a new team cap ($20) or T-shirt ($20).

But the team’s colors and the park’s new atmosphere won’t be the only obvious changes at Anaheim Stadium this summer. It’s likely to be a cozier Big A, as work on a $100-million stadium face-lift will continue all season, dropping capacity to about 33,000, half of what it was last season. Yet ticket prices--which average $9.68, the lowest in the American League--will remain unchanged for the third consecutive season.

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Meanwhile at Dodger Stadium, visitors may be getting their last taste of one of sports’ most fan-friendly management teams. Since club President Peter O’Malley, the last major league owner whose sole business is baseball, recently put the Dodgers up for sale, this season could very well mark the end of an era.

Until the sale takes place, however, it’s likely to be business as usual at Dodger Stadium. The 56,000-seat park and its environs will be just as clean and beautiful as always and the small army of polite, friendly ushers and 100 roving food vendors will do their best to make sure everyone has a good time. After all, why mess with success? The Dodgers were the first team to draw 3 million fans and they continue to rank near the top in home attendance.

“It’s kind of grown up that way,” says Lon Rosenberg, general manager of Aramark food services at Dodger Stadium. “We tell our people, let’s let [the fans] share the whole building.”

The stadium menu will also remain largely unchanged, with Dodger Dogs--including a new quarter-pound Super Dodger Dog--peanuts, frozen malts, Cool-a-Coo ice cream sandwiches and other goodies available at more than 50 concession stands. In addition, a limited menu of Carl’s Jr. and Pizza Hut items will again be available at food stands inside the park.

For those with more exotic tastes, there’s the club-level food court, which the Dodgers opened to the general public two years ago, reversing a policy that had reserved the area for season-ticket holders. Located above the first-base line, the food court offers items such as sushi, Mexican food, a salad bar, gourmet ice cream and pastries, a daily chef’s special and vegetarian fare.

There will also be a wide array of souvenir items, from wool jackets ($120) to Dodger pennants ($3), available at stadium souvenir stands and three gift shops, including the mammoth Top of the Park store located on the general admission level behind home plate.

BE THERE

Freeway Series, Angels vs. Dodgers: Friday at Dodger Stadium, 7:05 p.m. Tickets $6-$12 (children and seniors can purchase $3 top-deck tickets 90 minutes prior to the game). Saturday (7:05 p.m.) and Sunday (1:05 p.m.) at Anaheim Stadium. Tickets $7-$14.50.