DOUBLE FEATURE

Kevin Morton was one of the first to see it 15 years ago when he played with Mo Vaughn for the American Legion Post 12 team in Norwalk, Conn.

Matt Sczesny, the scout who signed Vaughn out of college, witnessed it from 1987 through 1989 while Vaughn starred at Seton Hall University in South Orange, N.J.

The Boston Red Sox saw it for eight years, and Kevin Kennedy reaped the benefits of it when he managed the Red Sox and Vaughn in 1995 and ’96.

And now the Angels will get to see first-hand what kind of impact Vaughn can have on a team when they embark on their first season with the slugger they believe can carry them to their first American League West championship since 1986.

Much has been made of Vaughn’s power, his clubhouse presence, his willingness to assume a leadership role, his charitable efforts in the community. All are traits worthy of attention.

But if there is one quality that stands out, one that clinched the Angels’ decision to commit $80 million over six years to this 31-year-old first baseman, it is Vaughn’s ability to come through in the clutch.

Vaughn has a .304 lifetime average in eight major league seasons but is a career .318 hitter with runners in scoring position. In the last three years, Vaughn has a .339 average when hitting in the seventh inning or later.

“Some things you can teach, some things you have,” said Morton, who knew Vaughn as a youngster, went to Seton Hall with him and pitched one season for the Red Sox in 1991.

“Mo has an intense focus, an intangible, a quiet confidence about him that allows him to thrive in pressure situations. I wish I had that. I might still be pitching in the big leagues.”

The Angels expect Vaughn, who has averaged 39 homers and 120 runs batted in the last four years, to be a force in the lineup throughout the season, but his true impact may not be felt until September, when the glare of a pennant race is the hottest.

That has traditionally been the time of year the Angels melt like a scoop of ice cream on a sweltering sidewalk, when things around Anaheim get sticky and messy and unsightly.

The Angels have a 453-551 (.451) franchise record in September and have gone a pitiful 110-180 (.379) in the last 11 Septembers.

Included in those numbers was the great collapse of 1995, when the Angels blew an 11-game lead to Seattle, and the final fades of ’97 and ‘98, when the Angels could not fend off the Mariners and Texas Rangers and finished second in the West.

Vaughn has hit .331 the last three Septembers and is a career .298 hitter in September and October. He won the American League most-valuable-player award while leading the Red Sox to the 1995 East title, and had a monster year (.337, 40 homers, 115 RBIs) to lead Boston to a wild-card playoff berth in 1998.

Though Vaughn struggled in his first postseason, going hitless in 14 at-bats against Cleveland in 1995, he hit .412 with two homers and seven RBIs in four division series games against the Indians last October.

“Maybe in August and September, when we hit a rut, he’s the type of guy who knows what’s ahead, knows how to get out of it,” Angel shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “Maybe he’s the guy to lead us. To be fair to the guys here, hardly anyone has been to the playoffs. We don’t know what it takes.”

DiSarcina has admired Vaughn from the opposing dugout for years, and in the few weeks he has spent with him this spring can sense something different about this 6-foot-1, 245-pounder with barrel-like biceps.

“Some players like the big stage and being ‘The Man.’ Mo wants that responsibility,” DiSarcina said. “He has an aura about him, a swagger. As long as I’ve been here, we’ve never had someone like that in the prime of his career.”

The Angels did not blow huge division leads the last two years, but they crumbled amid the controversy surrounding Tony Phillips’ drug arrest in 1997 and wilted among a slew of injuries in 1998. In both seasons, the Angels’ late-season offense ground to a virtual halt.

Vaughn seems to feed off such pressure. In 1995, with the Red Sox driving toward the division title, Vaughn hit .340 with 11 doubles, seven homers and 26 RBIs in September.

In 1998, with Boston battling for a wild-card spot and Vaughn embroiled in a bitter contract dispute with the front office, the first baseman hit .356 with six homers and 19 RBIs in September.

“When tough times come, he doesn’t panic, he responds,” said Kennedy, the former Red Sox manager. “You can just feel the air of confidence he brings, and the club feeds off that. There were tough times in Boston with the front office, but nothing affected him at the ballpark.”

Sczesny, the Red Sox scout, remembers Vaughn hitting several late-game home runs to lift Seton Hall to the Big East tournament title in 1989, and marveling at how Vaughn warmed to the spotlight.

“You must be born with it,” Sczesny said. “Maybe he likes challenges. I followed him through college, and he showed it there. In Boston, he’d give you the three-run homer in the first and the solo homer in the eighth to tie the game. We’re going to miss him.”

Vaughn’s confidence seems to peak under pressure.

“I feel I’m going to beat you,” Vaughn said. “I know it’s not going to happen every time, but that’s how I feel. I want to be up there in the pressure situations because I don’t want another player to feel failure. I’ve failed enough. I know how to handle it.”

Vaughn’s ability to handle past failures may be why he is so successful today.

When he got to Seton Hall, Vaughn hit .094 in 25 unofficial games in the fall of his freshman year. That winter, Vaughn spent countless hours in the indoor batting cage, often at the expense of his schoolwork, and he bounced back the next spring and hit 28 home runs in his freshman season.

“I’d hit and hit and hit every day until I got it right,” Vaughn said. “I always carried a bat with me to my last class before batting practice.”

After spending the second half of 1991 with the Red Sox, Vaughn, a highly touted first-round pick, won the first base job coming out of spring training in 1992. But he hit .185 with two homers and 11 RBIs in his first 23 games, struggled defensively and was demoted to triple-A Pawtucket on May 11.

“He was really upset--he talked about leaving, asking for a trade, going somewhere else,” said Rico Petrocelli, Pawtucket’s manager at the time. “I let him get it all off his chest.

“Then I suggested the next step, that the best thing he could do is call [then-Boston manager] Butch Hobson, be a man, and let him know what you’re going to do to get back to the big leagues, instead of sulking.

“The next day, sure enough, he called. I give him so much credit. He humbled himself, told Butch he was going to work hard to get back to Boston. It took a lot of courage to do that. I thought it showed a lot about his character.”

Vaughn was eventually recalled that June 22 and hit .245 with 11 homers and 46 RBIs in his last 90 games.

“Rico said all the right things, and he got me through some negative times,” Vaughn said. “He may have saved my career.”

Give Mike Easler an assist.

When Vaughn reported to spring training in 1993, rumors began to circulate that if he didn’t play well he would be traded. Easler, the Boston batting instructor at the time, did a one-month make-over on Vaughn, overhauling his swing.

Vaughn went from a pull hitter with an upright stance to one who used the whole field out of a spread-out stance. He hit .420 with 10 homers that spring and had his first big year in the big leagues, hitting .297 with 29 homers and 101 RBIs.

“That was the pivotal point of my career,” Vaughn said.

Vaughn soon became the driving force behind the Red Sox offense, and he was just as dominant behind the scenes. He was the go-to guy on the field and in the clubhouse, always at his locker after tough losses and deflecting heat from younger players such as Nomar Garciaparra.

“I knew who could and couldn’t handle the media pressure,” Vaughn said. “I took it on my shoulders because I knew I could handle it. I take responsibility so others can thrive.”

That’s what always impressed Kennedy about Vaughn, and it took an unfortunate incident for Kennedy to realize it.

The Red Sox were in first place in 1995, trying to fend off the Yankees, when Vaughn arrived at Fenway Park two days after the all-star break with one eye practically swollen shut. Vaughn, trying to protect a girlfriend, had gotten into a fight with several men at a nightclub the night before.

Kennedy sent Vaughn home, but the next day, Vaughn returned to Fenway, addressed the media about the incident and apologized. When he returned to the lineup the next night, he received a standing ovation.

“Mo never said he was a saint--he’s human--but when he does make a mistake, he accepts responsibility instead of shying away from it,” Kennedy said. “That’s why the Red Sox are going to miss him.”

After Vaughn’s playoff flop in 1995, Kennedy consoled Vaughn by telling him he would be stronger because of the experience. Sure enough, Vaughn was a one-man terror against Cleveland in last October’s division series.

“For those guys in Anaheim who haven’t experienced the playoffs or done well in tough pressure situations, they rolled off Mo’s back like it was nothing,” Kennedy said. “Mo got stronger because of it.”

Vaughn’s final two years in Boston were tumultuous, with a 1998 arrest and eventual acquittal on drunk-driving charges and his ongoing contract feud with the Red Sox front office.

Vaughn seemed to thrive on adversity--after his trial ended in March 1998, Vaughn returned to Florida, hit three home runs in his first Grapefruit League game and declared, “The price goes up every day.”

Said Kennedy: “The more they tried to bury him in Boston, the stronger it made him.”

Which makes you wonder: How will Vaughn respond to such prosperity in Anaheim? The Angels flattered him with a six-year, $72-million offer on the first day teams could contact free agents last October, accompanying the offer with a seven-page letter explaining how much they wanted him.

Vaughn has nothing but good things to say about General Manager Bill Bavasi, and he had a cordial conversation this spring with Disney Chairman Michael Eisner.

Won’t he need something to be angry about to excel?

Mo says no.

“The most comfortable feeling I had in Boston was between the lines,” Vaughn said. “I ignored all that other garbage. That stuff didn’t push me. Being the best player I could be pushed me.

“Now I can be comfortable driving to the park, coming through the clubhouse door. Having a whole organization behind me should make me play even harder and make me better.”

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Mo Vaughn Facts

The new Angel has batted .331 the last three Septembers and is a career .298 hitter in September and October:

* Age: 31.

* Height: 6 feet 1.

* Weight: 245 pounds.

* MVP: Was honored as the American League’s best in 1995 when he led the Red Sox to East title. He hit .337 with 40 home runs and 115 RBIs.