NEIGHBORLY RIVALRY; DODGERS-ANGELS GAME SPLITS FANS.

Byline: Lisa Van Proyen Daily News Staff Writer

Baseball fan Jesse Pridmore contrastingly wore an Anaheim Angels baseball cap with a Los Angeles Dodgers jersey Tuesday as he eagerly stood from his front-row seat in hopes of capturing an errant ball.

Pridmore, a 10-year-old from Cypress - who lives just a few miles away from Anaheim Stadium - said he likes both teams, but that he is ``basically with the Dodgers.''

Shaun Sipes, a 9-year-old from Altoona, Pa., wore a Los Angeles hat as he had Angels player Mike Holtz autograph a ball and some baseball cards. The East Coast kid said he was rooting for both teams.

For some spectators of the first interleague play during the regular season between the Dodgers and Angels on Tuesday night at Chavez Ravine, the game meant Dodgers vs. Angels and Los Angeles vs. Orange County. They could have bragging rights, depending on who wins.

As it turned out, the Dodger fans did the cheering in the end. The Los Angeles team won 4-3 after third baseman Todd Zeile hit a dramatic ninth-inning home run.

``I'm a Dodger fan, and to me, if you want to watch baseball in Southern California, this is where you go - pure baseball,'' said Bill Lore of Cypress.

Though Marty Flax, of La Palma in Orange County, relates to both teams, he maintained that the Angels have a better team this year - plus he gets better seats at Anaheim Stadium, he said.

``We get better seats - between home plate and first plate. We use other people's season tickets (for the Dodgers), and we're sitting in the bleachers,'' Flax said. ``I think the Dodgers get all the publicity in the city. I think the Angels this year have a better team.''

Others viewed the game as a friendly rivalry and a chance to boost a measure of the sport's popularity following a damaging 1994 strike.

``I think it's great. Hopefully, it will bring in more people and bring baseball back to the way it used to be,'' said Shaun Sipes' father, Tom, who rode the fence on who to root for. ``We're die-hard baseball fans, but it's a tough one. We like them both.''

Steve Carroll of Los Angeles agreed.

``I enjoy it. They should have had this a long time ago,'' echoed Carroll. ``I'm torn between them. . . . It's (a) good rivalry. It's hard to know who to pull for because you're caught in the middle now.''

However, others - some calling themselves baseball purists - were not so pleased with the interleague idea, arguing that it will mess up the World Series.

``I hate it - I think it's going to water down the teams in the World Series playoffs,'' said Angels fan Char Egizi of Rowland Heights.

The Dodgers face the Angels again today at 7:30 p.m.

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2 Photos

Photo: (1-2--Color) Tom Sipes takes a photo of his son Shaun, 9, decked out in Dodgers apparel, top, with the California Angels' Mike Holtz before the interleague game Tuesday night at Dodger Stadium. At right, Jesse Pridmore displays his divided loyalties.

Myung J. Chun/Daily News

(2) Kevin Case seeks an autograph from the Angels' Dennis Springer.

Terri Thuente/Daily News