GETTING TO KNOW THE SOUTHLAND’S NEWEST. . .MAJOR PLAYERS

Leave it to Angel pitcher Chuck Finley, chief executive officer of Analogies R Us, to put the team’s $80-million acquisition of free-agent first baseman Mo Vaughn in proper perspective.

“It’s like that growling in the bushes--you hear it when you walk by and you’re not sure what it is, but you know it’s going to get you,” Finley said Wednesday at an Edison Field news conference to introduce Vaughn.

“That’s what it’s going to be like having Mo Vaughn in our dugout. With guys like him, there’s always the anticipation of something good happening. Certain guys just exude that feeling.”

The Angels have had a fairly potent lineup since 1995, with players such as Tim Salmon and Jim Edmonds capable of 30-homer, 100-RBI seasons and Darin Erstad providing a rare combination of power and speed, but in Vaughn, the former Boston Red Sox slugger, they have something very different.

“This guy is a superstar,” Angel closer Troy Percival said. “We’ve been overachieving for the last three or four years. If we do that and Mo plays his game, we’ll win.”

Finley, Percival, reliever Mike James, catcher Todd Greene and Manager Terry Collins were on hand for Wednesday’s gathering, Finley joking that he came “to find out which half of Disneyland they gave Mo so I know where to go for the free rides.”

But you almost got the feeling they wouldn’t believe the Angels had actually procured a player of such magnitude, a player who was so revered in Boston and so feared around baseball, an honest-to-goodness American League most valuable player in 1995, until they saw him in the flesh.

They were beginning to wonder when Vaughn’s flight from Boston was delayed Wednesday morning--guess that monster, six-year contract did not include use of the Disney private jet--and the guest of honor was an hour late.

But soon enough, there was Vaughn at the Diamond Club lectern , holding an Angel jersey to his chest and pulling a new cap over his head, with General Manager Bill Bavasi beaming at his side and the rapid fire of photographers’ flashes all around him.

It was a day many Angels and their skeptical fans, jilted by the low-budget signings of so many over-the-hill hitters and injured pitchers in recent years, thought would never come.

It was a day Vaughn, who had a .304 average with 230 home runs and 752 RBIs in eight Red Sox seasons, saw coming for years.

“There was a guy wearing No. 21 before me, a guy who is going to the Hall of Fame, and they let him go,” Vaughn said, alluding to pitcher Roger Clemens’ departure from the Red Sox two winters ago. “So I knew this could happen. It’s their loss.”

Boston offered Vaughn a five-year, $63-million contract in November, but Vaughn turned it down, claiming the Red Sox never really wanted him. If they did, Vaughn contends, they would have made a better effort to extend his contract in the last 18 months, and they would have shown some support during his trial on drunk-driving charges last winter.

They also would have made Vaughn a higher priority than Troy O’Leary, Tom Gordon, Tim Wakefield and John Valentin, who recently signed long-term contracts, and they would have tried to sign Vaughn in the 15-day period after this year’s World Series, when teams had exclusive negotiating rights with their own free agents.

“I believe in loyalty, and I was big enough to put all that behind me and exhaust all efforts to stay in Boston,” Vaughn, 30, said. “But I still don’t believe they didn’t bargain with me in that 15-day period. When they didn’t, I knew my career there was over.

“I’m past the Red Sox. I had some good times there, but I’m happy to be here now. I want to get my mind on what I can do to help Anaheim. . . . I hold no grudges toward the Red Sox. They gave me the opportunity to be where I am now.”

That would be in the heart of the Angel order, most likely in the No. 3 spot ahead of cleanup batter Salmon, and at the helm of a clubhouse in need of a dominating presence, one that could help prevent the September slides that have doomed the Angels in three of the last four years.

“We wanted a special personality,” Bavasi said of the Angels’ decision to pursue Vaughn. “We’re not looking for anything extra special from Mo, we just want him to be himself. He cherishes the thought of a club climbing on his back and him carrying it.”

Vaughn thrives in the spotlight, and he’s the type who would prefer the pressure be placed on him instead of his teammates. He is emotional and candid with reporters, a combination that has led to some controversial criticism of the Red Sox front office in recent years.

But Vaughn acknowledges he might have to tone things down in Anaheim . . . at least for a couple of weeks.

“They have a good group of guys here, and it’s their clubhouse--I’ll just try to fit into their system,” Vaughn said. “If I have something inside my heart that I feel can help them, I’ll say something. For now, I’ll just sit on the side . . . maybe by midseason I’ll have a lot to say.”

Vaughn’s actions usually speak volumes--just look at the Red Sox, who were picked by many to finish third or fourth in the American League East last season and went 92-70 and won a wild-card berth, thanks in large part to Vaughn’s pushing and prodding, not to mention his .337 average, 40 homers and 115 RBIs.

“I can try to get other guys to play to another level, to believe in themselves,” Vaughn said. “The Red Sox were not the most talented team, but they were the most mentally tough. I don’t want anyone at any time to feel they shortchanged themselves, that they didn’t get after it like they should.”

Vaughn knows life will be different in Anaheim--that Angel fans are not as fervent as Boston’s faithful, and that Edison Field won’t be as intense as Fenway Park. But he likes the idea of playing in a more relaxed atmosphere, and for a team he believes appreciates him more than the Red Sox.

And besides, Vaughn said, “If you win, it doesn’t matter if you’re playing on Mars--it’s going to be great.”