Moreno Is Owning Up to His Responsibilities

I had a nice chat with Angels owner Arte Moreno Wednesday night. I like talking to people with a lot of money, which explains the lack of communication between the Boston Parking Lot Attendant and myself.

I also like talking to a sports owner without being bothered by his wife or his wife’s publicist.

Now I know I wrote something nice about a Dodger player last week and promised to never do it again after he went bonkers 48 hours later, but for some reason I don’t see Moreno doing anything with a bottle other than lowering the price for its purchase.

That’s the thing about Moreno, from Day 1 he has had a plan, much of it to do with making his customers happy, and he has the money and the willingness to spend it as evidenced by the acquisitions of Bartolo Colon and Vladimir Guerrero. (We won’t muddy up an otherwise nice story by mentioning Jose Guillen).

“Building blocks,” as Moreno described the expensive hires, and I don’t think he was referring to Guillen.

Now frankly, I don’t remember how the Parking Lot Attendant put it when the Dodgers started the season with the acquisitions of Juan Encarnacion, Jayson Werth, Jason Worthless, sorry, Jason Grabowksi and Milton Bradley, but at times that’s been more rubble than solid foundation. But then you get what you pay for, don’t you?

As playoff moments go, the Angels were already facing their biggest one in Game 2and Moreno had paid handsomely for an edge on this crucial night with everything pretty much riding on Colon and Guerrero.

“Win or lose, though,” Moreno had said before the game, “it’s getting to this point that’s important for these fans. And getting to this point every year ... that’s why I say we’re building something here.”

Guerrero, worth the price of admission alone -- and I’ll take that back if he suddenly darts into the stands in right field and takes on all customers -- delivered a single to right in the fifth to give the Angels a 3-1 lead. The noise in Angel Stadium was deafening. Just as loud, by the way, when he struck out in the eighth. All in a night’s entertainment.

Colon, more Bobblebelly than Angel meal ticket earlier, dominated down the stretch and went six tense innings against the Red Sox and maybe one pitch too many. On his 110th pitch of the night, and even the Micro Manager wouldn’t leave a guy in that long, Colon allowed a two-run homer to tie the game.

Whatever, it was great theater with the promise of more to come from Moreno, who has already shown a knack for making money and spending it.

Take the huge Los Angeles Times sign above the Angels Stadium scoreboard. It was blue all season long, but Wednesday night it had been redone and was now Angel red, The Times apparently agreeing that it would finance the color change if the Angels made the playoffs.

The Times used the raise I was expecting, of course, to pay for it, but you know, whatever I can do to support the Angels in their quest to be successful -- next year.

*

AS FOR the Dodgers, well, we have no idea what the Parking Lot Attendant has planned, although it should be noted that he didn’t build much of anything on the land he owns in Boston.

The last I heard, the building he did own back there -- he’s losing for failing to make the loan payments.

Like I said, I look forward to more chats with Moreno come playoff time in the years to come, at the very least, so when I look at the scoreboard I won’t feel so bad about not getting a raise.

*

WHATEVER MORENO is paying Garret Anderson it’s too much. Ditto Brendan Donnelly. (There’s only so many nice things I can write about the Angels.)

*

I WAS prepared to ask Manager Mike Scioscia a question at his pre-game press conference to see if he was still in the cussing mood, but I noticed he was carrying a bat when he arrived. No reason to bug the man, I concluded.

*

DODGER PITCHER Jose Lima is doing a playoff diary for MLB.com because he hasn’t gotten enough media exposure, and after the team failed to show up in the first game of the playoffs against St. Louis, he wrote: “Today we got up too early in the morning. I felt like this was almost a Spring Training game; we had to get here at 8:30 in the morning and people were half asleep.”

Can you imagine having to be at work by 8:30 in the morning, and then be expected to be productive?

*

THE NL West was the worst, their bullpens set up to make the Dodgers winners, and all of a sudden some folks in the media are ready to pronounce former Dodger GM Dan Evans smart after all? Fred Roggin had him on his radio show and Evans told Roggin, “It’s pretty clear we had an idea what we were doing,” and I wonder how Roggin feels today, because yesterday he swallowed a lot of hogwash.

*

I UNDERSTAND Bradley has made the transition from bottle throwing to name-calling, which goes to show you the progress he’s made since making that sincere commitment to seek help for anger management.

*

YOU HAVE to admire the Dodgers confidence. The team announced that tickets for the National League Championship Series will go on sale Friday.

*

TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Andi Chapman:

“It’s a good thing you’re a writer and you have the paper to hide behind, because it’s clear you write all these negative remarks regarding the Lakers, but never say such nonsense to the players themselves. That’s what cowards like you do.”

Come and say that to my face -- if you can get past our security guards.

*

Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com. To read previous columns by Simers, go to latimes.com/simers.