DODGERS-ANGELS RIVALRY SURFACES IN FANS' MAIL.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

The Dodgers-Angels rivalry is the Loch Ness Monster of the local sports scene. You want it to exist. You think it could exist. You'll believe it when you see it.

I just saw a scaly tail jutting out of the water.

It was visible in baseball fans' e-mail responses to the questions posed in this column early this month: Is this a Dodgers town or an Angels town? Which team do readers care more about? Or do they root equally for both?

Wrote Angels fan Greg Arther: ``The Dodgers are a tired organization and their yard is a crumbling wasteland for overpaid free agents and hooligans. The teams have undergone personality transmutation - a Dodgers ball fan of old has to embrace the Angels, while their team has become the Angels of the '80s.''

Wrote Dodgers fan Pat McGonagle: ``Dodgers fans show up every year, over 3 million strong. Angel fans show up wearing brand-new red T-shirts one fall, and now you think that there is a chance that the Angels will take over L.A.? Congratulations to the Angels on their championship, their first, their one and only.''

The signs of a rivalry are there, if not among the Angels and Dodgers players, then among their fans.

Angels fans, emboldened by the team's first World Series victory, don't have much respect for Dodgers tradition. Dodgers fans, not used to sharing the headlines, are sick of those upstarts down the freeway.

Angels fan Bob Davis: ``The Dodgers are history. I grew up a Dodger fan in the days of Sandy Koufax, Willie Davis and Maury Wills. They are a mere shadow of that era. Totally mismanaged, put together like a fantasy team. It will take a long time for them to clean up the mess Kevin Malone left. The Angels are a great team to watch if you are a true baseball fan. A lot of gamers that play the game the right way. If only we could get Vin Scully over to Anaheim to announce the games, the Angels would own SoCal.''

Dodgers fan Doug Harris: ``The Angels are nice, but they will always be the No. 2 team in L.A. And just for your information, I live in south Orange County.''

Doug, don't be so sure. Of the 49 readers who sent e-mails, 55 percent said they care more about the Angels and 37 percent said they care more about the Dodgers, and 6 percent said they care about both and one man said it's dumb to think of Los Angeles and Orange counties as a single ``town.''

After 41 years in the background, it's Angels fans' turn to make noise.

Angels fan Herb Lam: ``I'm from Orange County. Why would I care about the Dodgers? L.A. never cared about the Angels until now. Bandwagoners!''

Angels fan with the e-mail address RRichmondConsult: ``I am an Angel fan for life, and I hate the arrogant Dodgers (and their fans)!''

Angels fan with the e-mail address angelfan25: ``Who would actually admit to being a Dodgers fan?''

And who knew Dodgers and Angels fans had such hard feelings?

Dodgers fan Kevin Birnbaum: ``I can't believe how people in this city will jump on the bandwagon of another team. ... If the Dodgers do not win another playoff game the rest of my life, I will still be a Los Angeles Dodger fan. If you want to root for the Angels, then go and live down in Orange County with Mickey Mouse.''

Angels fan Rob Rohm: ``I did also like the Dodgers as a kid, but my team was the Angels. I remember going to the Freeway Series and watching my favorites from both teams play against each other. I took pictures of Nolan Ryan pitching to Steve Garvey in Anaheim. Once interleague play began in 1997, the lines were drawn. ... Anyone that is on the fence will be wearing red next year.''

Angels fan Chris Power: ``The Angels are the World Champions and the Dodgers are not. Frankly, I think most Angel fans don't want any bandwagon Dodger fans to join the sea of red.''

Dodgers fan Scott Shepard: ``I rooted heavily for the Angels. But ... it was because of Mike Scioscia, Alfredo Griffin and Mickey Hatcher - former '88 Dodgers.''

Angels fan Chip St. John: ``The Angels represent everything the Dodgers once did in loyalty as well as fundamentals on the field. Am I the only one who finds it amusing that the Dodgers traded Eric Karros because he was too old to still play that position and then they bring in a player (Fred McGriff) who is older and slower?''

Dodgers fan Adam J. Weiner: ``I care equally about the Dodgers and the Angels ... in that order.''

Angels fan Ruppert: ``All the Dodgers fans/apologists talk about The Dodger Way to Play and all those glory Dodger years. For heaven's sake, that rhetoric is so hollow considering the many years it's been since the Dodgers accomplished anything of note. Do they know how foolish they sound?''

Do you see what I see? A monster is stirring beneath the calm waters of Southern California baseball. It's the start of the Dodgers-Angels rivalry we've been waiting for.

Football is over and basketball is a dud. Pitchers and catchers report in two weeks. The Angels and Dodgers meet March 28 in Anaheim and March 29 in Los Angeles, in the first exhibition Freeway Series in four years, and it looks as if the fans are going to be on edge.