"It was 5 a.m. Thursday in Dallas when the Angels, following five hours of negotiations on the final night of the winter meetings, closed a five-year, $77.5-million deal with pitcher C.J. Wilson.

After a group hug with front-office executives, General Manager Jerry Dipoto returned to his Hilton Anatole suite for a little sleep.

"The woman at the front desk laughed when I called at 6:30 a.m. and asked for an 8 a.m. wake-up call," Dipoto said. "By the time I got up and showered, my phone was going crazy."

One of those calls, at 8:55 a.m., was from Dan Lozano, the agent for Albert Pujols, the St. Louis slugger who only 36 hours earlier was linked with the Angels for the first time.

Dipoto, not two months into his new job, heard words that would shock the baseball world:

"Albert is ready to be an Angel."

Scott Servais, the Angels' assistant general manager, was in Dipoto's suite.

"We looked at each other and said, 'Is this for real?' " Servais said. "Everybody assumed that he would stay in St. Louis."

At 8:59 a.m., news of the Angels' 10-year, $254-million deal with Pujols broke on Twitter. An hour later, Wilson's deal was confirmed.

In one whirlwind morning, the Angels made the biggest one-day free-agent splash in baseball history and transformed themselves into World Series contenders, spending $331.5 million on the game's most feared hitter and one of its top pitchers."