There’s Hidden Treasure in Anaheim

They like their privacy, these clean-shaven, quiet-spoken, fan-friendly Angels.

They don’t mind that their 31-11 record over the last 42 games is the best-kept secret in sports. They say it’s really OK, fine and dandy, that the nation does not turn its collective lonely eye this way, toward a baseball team that has spent its history feeling cursed and is used to being unappreciated.

“From our standpoint,” Tim Salmon said, “I don’t think we mind if no one notices us. We can just keep going out and playing baseball.”

“We don’t need the publicity,” Garret Anderson said. “We just need to play baseball like we’re playing. Every day. We haven’t proven anything, so why should people take notice?”

This is nice, a team being genuinely surprised to hear that someone, anyone, thinks they have accomplished anything of note. The Angels don’t mind that their Rally Monkey is more famous than any of them. They are not insulted the fans haven’t celebrated their amazing May and pretty nice-so-far June by packing Edison Field, by swamping the ticket office, by eagerly concocting trades that would make the Angels better. They totally understand how a 6-14 start forges an image of losing that is not quickly erased. Not with their history of spectacular failures.

They are not in awe of themselves, nor are they particularly surprised to find themselves a game behind the Seattle Mariners in the American League West. “I would say,” Salmon says, “that this is not surprising in that we’re playing the kind of baseball everybody on this team is capable of.”

But if the Lakers defeat the New Jersey Nets tonight and put a merciful end to this NBA Finals series, Salmon, Anderson and the rest of the Angels will be noticed this weekend.

It is slightly possible that our two local baseball teams will engage in a three-game Dodger Stadium interleague series as first-place teams.

Had the Dodgers not lost to the woebegone Devil Rays, 11-2, Tuesday night and had the Angels not lost to the Pirates, 7-3, our Angels and our Dodgers would have been tied for first, with thanks going to the Diamondbacks and Mariners for losing.

We’ll need to wait at least another day for that to happen.

This has happened in near secrecy, at least on the part of the Angels. Because they started the season as pathetic patsies--unable to hit at all, field much and pitching only occasionally--you, Angel fan, can be forgiven if you tuned them out, if you gave up, if you put all your efforts into spitting venom about the Sacramento Kings and heaping praise on the Lakers and making plans for a summer vacation that didn’t include a trip to Edison Field.

After all, as the Angels became the May menace, the few serious Angel fans spent the month confused, trying to find the games somewhere on TV or radio. Because they share their radio station with the Lakers and because the Lakers take precedence, it was musical numbers on your radio dial. And because the Angels share their television station with the Lakers and the Lakers are the bigger draw, the Angels didn’t get on the air much.

It was almost sad to hear a desperate Angel backer call in, postgame, to the Angel broadcasters and say, “Where can I find the game tomorrow?” Some Angel fans actually needed the morning paper to find the score!

And, you, Dodger fan, might be tempted to put all hopes on hold, what with Kevin Brown having had his back cut open Tuesday and the prospects that he’ll win another game this season pretty much cut out.

But there is a charm to what is happening for both the Dodgers and Angels. There is something worth rooting for, a team whose ace is flat on his back; another team whose history seems cursed and whose season was written off by many of us in April.

The Angels can’t win every game, even if that’s how it has seemed lately.

Boos were heard when starting pitcher Kevin Appier struggled Tuesday and gave up four runs in five innings and when Anderson seemed turned around on a couple of catchable fly balls. This is a good thing. It means people care. It means there are hopes and dreams and even some expectations.

It is hard for Angel fans to get their hopes up. It is easier to believe that after the rise, the inevitable fall will come quickly and hard.

“Whenever you are on a team that’s going good, you think things are great,” says Salmon, who has been part of many good Angel streaks and always seen them end ugly. “There’s not a short answer to this, but I think this team is the most well-balanced team I’ve been on. Even the 1995 team, we had [Mark] Langston and [Chuck] Finley as starting pitchers, but after that ... “

Now the Angels are the only team in baseball to have five starting pitchers with at least five wins each. If there is no Pedro Martinez-type ace, there is no dead spot either.

“This is the most solid team I’ve been on,” Anderson says. “Everybody knows their role and understands it. Everybody accepts their role and does it well.”

After trailing, 4-0, the Angels got within a run of the Pirates in the bottom of the seventh when Brad Fullmer and Scott Spiezio went back-to-back with home runs. The fireworks smoke hadn’t cleared when Pokey Reese cleared the loaded bases with a three-run double in the top of the eighth.

So first place waits. The Dodgers are up next. Don’t look now, but baseball matters in Southern California. All of it.

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Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com.