ANAHEIM -- Unexpected things always happen when you're the host. On Monday, when Torii Hunter was emceeing the Angels' postseason pep rally -- which drew 20,000 fans -- he never expected one of the participants to become uncomfortably clingy.

"A monkey jumped on me," Hunter said. "Scared me a little bit. I didn't know what it was. I thought it was a hawk coming to take me away or something."

We're not talking about the figurative monkey, which would be the Angels' nine consecutive postseason losses to the Boston Red Sox, Anaheim's opponent in the American League Division Series that starts Wednesday night.

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AP Photo/Mark Avery

A dominant season by Francisco Rodriguez is just one reason the Angels might be poised to topple Boston this postseason.

Hunter meant a monkey-monkey.

"I thought it was going to piss on me," he said.

Clairvoyant types might be tempted to believe the Angels' real-life, rambunctious Rally Monkey glomming on to their biggest offseason acquisition is a bad omen, but the Angels' outspoken center fielder doesn't see it that way.

"It's a good thing," Hunter proclaimed.

Maybe the Rally Monkey can inspire America to give the Angels more respect. The Angels finished with the best record in the major leagues, but if there were approval ratings for playoff teams, they'd have the appeal of leftover Spam.

The Angels were meeting with media in their clubhouse on Tuesday when an ESPN analyst proclaimed they had no shot at dethroning the defending champion Red Sox.

"Yeah, you all picked the Mariners, too!" someone yelled out.

There just isn't a lot of confidence in the Angels, whose biggest sin seems to be that they clinched the American League West title before Tina Fey could perfect her Sarah Palin routine.

Respectfully, Hunter wonders if America has gone nuts.

"I've been reading and hearing that we clinched too early," Hunter said. "I guess in July we should have said, all right, let's lose a couple. That's freakin' stupid. How the hell do you clinch too early and it's a negative?"

No other team comes into the postseason as overlooked as the Angels. They are the 100-win team that nobody cares about. Even the Tampa Bay Rays, who are in the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, have more national sizzle. The Rays are the sexy underdog. The Angels? The mangled shrew. At least the Rays have Dick Vitale in their corner. Who's got the Angels?

It's one thing to be a national afterthought, but the Angels are in the unfortunate position of being local afterthoughts, too. The Dodgers and Manny Ramirez are the dominant forces in SoCal. Ramirez even proclaimed Hollywood, "Mannywood."

What, no Toriiwood?

"We're a blue-collar team," said outfielder Gary Matthews Jr. "We just win ballgames. As far as national exposure, it's just not a whole lot to write about. Torii's got a really big personality. That's probably given the fans and the media a little more insight into the team and the clubhouse. Other than that, it's just not a whole lot that we give to you."

The Angels don't give us anything but baseball. What a novel concept. There is no drama in this clubhouse. Nobody's creeping with Madonna. Nobody's playing coy for big dollars down the line. They just play the game here in Orange County, damn the headlines.

"As long as we keep winning, I don't care who gets the attention," Matthews said.

The Angels have one of the best bullpens in baseball (fourth in the American League in ERA). They have the league's most dominant closer in Francisco Rodriguez. They have a 31-21 record in one-run games.

Regular-season games can't be weighed too heavily, but it does say something that the Angels have dominated the Red Sox this season. You could argue the Red Sox maintain a psychological advantage because of previous postseason triumphs against the Angels, but the Angels going 8-1 against the BoSox might have exorcised that demon.

Of course, there are questions. Can Vladimir Guerrero, who hit .167 and .200 in the two previous Red Sox sweeps, be a clutch postseason hitter? Can the Angels' defense, a pinpointed weakness, hold up? Can they follow the 1998 Yankees and 2007 Red Sox, who are the only two teams with the best record in baseball to win the World Series since the current playoff format began in '95?

But the questions don't outweigh the positives. No disrespect to the Red Sox, but injuries make the champs look vulnerable. For sure, this isn't the 2007 Red Sox. But it isn't the 2007 Angels, either.

Jemele Hill can be reached at jemeleespn@gmail.com.