Moreno Still Has Pride Even After Angels’ Fall

The neighbors have a sign in their frontyard that proclaims them a “Home Pride Award Nominee,” one more reminder, I guess, that we live in a shack.

I was feeling badly about that until someone explained that many of the neighbors who are up for the Home Pride Award nominated themselves.

And in the case of the vanity sign that sits next door, right now it’s hiding the pile of blue bags that have been used to pick up dog droppings for the last week, and you know what, I took pride in noticing that.

Obviously things are not always as they appear, and I bring this up now because I went to Angel Stadium to ask Arte Moreno what he’s going to do about his crummy team and right away he tells me the Angels are not as bad off as they might appear.

“It’s May,” said Moreno. “A lot of rats jump off ship in a big storm, don’t they?”

I have no idea why he’d think I’d be an authority on rats, but I appreciated the compliment, then reminded him Kansas City was the only team in the American League before Saturday night’s game to have fewer wins than the Angels, and the Angels were pegged by many to be World Series contenders.

“OK, we’re not in first place,” Moreno said.

“Last place,” I said.

“So what do you think our record is going to be at the end of the season?” he asked.

“I’d say around .500.”

“OK, then for every game we finish below .500, I will donate $1,000 to Mattel Children’s Hospital at UCLA,” Moreno said, “and for every game we finish above .500, you have to donate $100 to the hospital.”

For some reason Moreno must think I’m not as wealthy as he is, but rather than get into another argument, I agreed to his terms, knowing now he’ll be all over General Manager Bill Stoneman to do something to improve the offense and avoid losing big.

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MORENO INSISTED he’s not worried, the Angels winning their fourth in a row Saturday and knowing the schedule works in his team’s favor the next few weeks. The media have criticized the Angels for not adding more offensive firepower, and the stats suggest the media were on target, but “I’m not going to say the media was right -- in May,” Moreno said.

As chance would have it, while we talked in the Angels’ dugout Friday night, Troy Glaus was shown on the stadium video board hitting home run No. 14 for Toronto. Fourteen home runs would make Glaus the team leader in Anaheim.

“If you’re going to point fingers at anyone, point them at me,” he said, and I thought I was already doing that. “The Angels have had a historical record of signing aging superstars and giving up their future. I’ve just said unless we can bring in someone who substantially impacts our team, I’d rather wait and give our young players a chance.”

For that reason, the Angels passed on old-timers like Garciaparra and Piazza, although some might argue the team was one rent-an-old-fogy away from contending for the World Series. Now they have to hope Tim Salmon holds up and Juan Rivera and Dallas McPherson finally wake up.

“I don’t believe in ‘The Natural,’ although I liked the movie,” Moreno said. “I don’t think someone is going to show up with a hand-carved bat. We’ll do what we can to improve, the money is there, but it’s baseball -- it’s not life and death.

“The No. 1 thing that affects me is the fans, and I know they’re disappointed, but it’s May and we’re not going to reshuffle the deck.

“The first thing we want to do is win our division, and I still like our chances,” he added. “If the season ended right now the Yankees wouldn’t be in the playoffs, and arguably they have the best team that money could buy. It’s very early. If we’re having this discussion in August, then it would be different.”

I guess we have a date come August.

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I’VE HAD two very nice conversations with Garret Anderson recently, which makes me wonder if he’s all right.

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ANGELS HITTING coach Mickey Hatcher will join the father/daughter gabfest today at 9 a.m. on 570 to explain how they managed to score 10 runs in the same game.

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AN E-MAILER took notice and wrote to say the Dodgers’ PR guy, Josh Rawitch, is doing a blog on the team’s website, and apparently he’s taking credit for the team’s recent success.

This week he wrote, “Since May 5 when I posted a blog about [Nomar Garciaparra] showing quite a bit of leadership in the clubhouse, the team has gone 15-3 and Nomar has the second-best average in all of baseball, batting .438 with 21 RBI.” I was pretty sure Garciaparra wasn’t capable of doing all that by himself.

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GOT AN invite to appear on a minor league radio station up north with F.P. Santangelo and two other guys. Six years after the fact, they were all steamed and wanted to know why Page 2 had picked on the 24th man on the Dodgers’ roster. Right from the start, of course, they had their facts wrong.

I reminded them Santangelo was “the 25th man on the roster,” and frankly I don’t recall him doing much more during his stay in L.A. other than hitting .197 and making it into the first paragraph of the first column on Page 2.

I had mentioned the sign above the entrance to the Dodgers’ clubhouse, which read “Players Only,” and had asked the question: If Santangelo could go inside, then why couldn’t I?

Santangelo told the radio audience his child went to school six years ago, heard kids talking about Page 2 and then cried. And people say newspapers no longer have what it takes to reach young readers.

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