DISNEY’S NEW ATTRACTION: Mo-Town

The Angels have made their big splash now by signing a very big man to a very large contract.

Mo Vaughn, wearing glittery silver earrings, a black leather jacket and a wide smile on his even wider face, is now an Anaheim Angel for the next six years. And for his trouble, at least briefly, Vaughn is the highest-paid player in baseball by receiving $80 million in those six years.

And this was a proud moment for the Angels, who had been filed away with the cheapskates of major league baseball since Disney took over and pretty much signed nobody.

“Obviously this is a huge day for our organization,” General Manager Bill Bavasi said.

“This is an exciting day in the history of the Angels,” Tim Mead, vice president of communications said.

It is. Well, it was. But, time’s up. Celebration over.

Next up for us to decide is whether the Angels and their Disney ownership will become more like the New York Yankees and Atlanta Braves, willing and able to sign whoever they need, or whether they will be like so many teams, teams like the Chicago Cubs, for example, who might make one splashy signing, shake their collective finger at their fans and say, “See, see, we care about winning, really, we do, and please come on out, fill up our stadium, buy our luxury boxes and forget about all the big holes we won’t fill.”

That is where the Angels are now.

They have made the splashy signing. They almost had to. By the end of last season opponents were commiserating with the Angel players about how those players had worked so hard and so well and yet were left so short-handed by management.

Combined with the fact that Disney people had talked big about the Mighty Ducks too and then made no impact signings over the summer, the conclusion had been reached, not only here but around the country, that Disney was, well, cheap.

Can’t call them cheap now. But because the free-agent market has been neglected for so long in Anaheim, there is more to be done.

Which brings us to Randy Johnson, of course.

The Angels need a starting pitcher and the world knows that too.

Vaughn, who spoke by speakerphone from back East after he had appeared on video on ESPN (thank you Disney-owned ESPN), was asked mostly (1) why it had taken so long--nearly three weeks--to get this deal done if it is true the Angels were really, truly his first choice (or would that be only choice?); (2) how wrenching will it be for him to leave a city, Boston, where he was beloved and where he had become a hero for his play and his impressive charity work; and (3), and this he was asked early and often, can you help bring Randy Johnson with you?

His different answers were all variations on “Well, yeah, I’d really like Johnson to come to Anaheim and I’ll talk to him, I promise.”

Indeed Vaughn said he had already spoken to Johnson and that the two are friends.

Which is fine, but Johnson is still going to want lots of money and a pretty lengthy contract for a quickly aging power pitcher with a bad back.

And with all that, the Angels need to sign Johnson.

For how terrible will it be if the Angels can’t get that No. 1 starter and then fight till the very end, again, only to finish second, again?

Vaughn could pound holes in those center-field rocks with his powerful blasts, hit .360, drive in 200 runs and if there is not a pitcher who can stop that three-game losing streak in August, it may not matter.

Bavasi said Wednesday night that the Angels were committed to “trying to make our team better.” He said the free-agent market “is what it is and we were never afraid to get into the market.” And Bavasi said the people the Angels are most concerned about “are the fans in Orange County and Southern California. We are committed to winning for them.”

Vaughn should sure be a persuasive salesman for the Angels in their pursuit of Johnson. Vaughn seemed to practically choke up when he spoke of how touched he was that the Angels had called him “at 9 a.m. the first morning” that free agents could be contacted. Vaughn said he was particularly moved by a letter that Bavasi wrote him.

“If you could read that letter, you could tell what kind of people you’d be working for,” Vaughn said. Vaughn said the letter showed that Bavasi appreciated qualities of Vaughn’s that the Red Sox never did. Vaughn also said that Bavasi wanted “talent with an attitude.”

Whatever was in that letter, Bavasi should fax it straight to Johnson. He should put Vaughn back on the phone to Johnson. And, of course, he’ll have to open up that Disney checkbook again.

For it is still to be determined what the Angels want to be--the Yankees or the Cubs.

Diane Pucin can be reached at diane.pucin@latimes.com