Major League Baseball

Angels pitcher Tommy Hanson occasionally experiences a short, unsettling dream. It comes just as he dozes off, and ends abruptly before he can reach a deep sleep. "A lot of pitchers have that kind of dream," Hanson said, "where the ball is coming at your face and you're jolted awake. " The nightmare became reality for two major league pitchers last season. In September, Brandon McCarthy of the Oakland Athletics suffered a skull fracture that required surgery after a line drive off the bat of Angels shortstop Erick Aybar struck him on the side of his head.

Washington Nationals pitcher Gio Gonzalez, who was named in a Miami New Times report as receiving performance-enhancing drugs from an anti-aging clinic, says tests for PEDs he was given by Major League Baseball have come back negative. “Like I said before, I've never taken performance-enhancing drugs and I never will,” Gonzalez said Friday. “Two days after the story broke, I was tested for blood and urine, and both came out negative, like I expected. Throughout my entire career, it's been like that.

Major League Baseball will not expand its instant replay system this year, according to Joe Torre, the league's executive vice president of baseball operations. Commissioner Bud Selig told the Los Angeles Times four months ago that expanded replay would be in place for the 2013 season "for sure. " Torre told The Times that the timetable has been delayed one year. "Next year, there will be something, for sure," Torre said. "It's not like we're afraid to do something. I don't want to do something unless we feel like it's the right thing to do. " Torre, who is Selig's point man on the issue, said he understood the commissioner's oft-stated intention to broaden the replay system to include calls of fair balls, foul balls and trapped balls.

Edith Houghton, Major League Baseball's first female scout, died Feb. 2 at age 100, mlb.com is reporting . Houghton played on several women's teams during the 1920s and '30s, including the Hollywood Girls. She was hired as a scout by the Philadelphia Phillies in 1946 and worked in that capacity until 1952, when she left to serve in the military in the Korean War. She signed 15 players while she was a scout. None of them made it to the majors. Houghton died eight days short of her 101st birthday.

Colorado Rockies first baseman Todd Helton was arrested Wednesday in Thornton, Colo., on suspicion of drunk driving and careless driving. "Last evening, I exercised poor judgment and was charged with drinking and driving after driving to a gas station near my house," Helton said in a statement released through the team. "I am very sorry and embarrassed by my actions. I hold myself to a high standard and take my responsibility as a public figure very seriously. My entire career I have worked to set a positive example for my family and in our community and I fell far short of this standard.

Jackie Robinson, the Dodgers infielder who broke the color barrier in Major League Baseball, would have turned 94 today, so Google honored him with a doodle. Those outside of Los Angeles know him for his baseball exploits, when he entered the majors as the first African American and was the National League rookie of the year in 1947 and the NL's most valuable player in 1949. He was born in Cairo, Ga., to a family of sharecroppers, the youngest of five children. After his father left the family, his mother, Mallie, moved the family to California.

Thursday night's bid for absolution by cyclist Lance Armstrong over his use of performance-enhancing drugs - set to continue Friday as OWN founder and TV high priestess Oprah Winfrey seeks to bless her struggling network with ratings points - is, depending on the beholder, either a scoundrel's disgraceful and far-too-late effort to salvage his career or the last gasp of a hero aiming to silence the critics who have unfairly singled him out. ...

One year you're the economic laughingstock of baseball, the next its most feared financial juggernaut. Consider it Part XIV in a continuing series. So now comes this: The Dodgers' payroll increase for 2013 is so enormous, it's dragging the rest of baseball with it into uncharted fiscal territory. Yahoo Sports estimates that Major League Baseball's opening day payrolls will rise 7.1% this season to $3.15 billion, topping $3 billion for the first time - and that more than half of the increase will come from the Dodgers alone.

The annual "In the Spirit of the Game" gala, which raises money for baseball scouts who have retired or lost their jobs and need assistance, will be held Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Century Plaza. Increased focus on statistical analysis has resulted in the elimination of some scouting positions across baseball in recent years. "It absolutely cost scouts jobs," said Dennis Gilbert, chairman of the Professional Scouts Foundation, which is hosting the event. However, that trend could be reversed.

Major League Baseball announced Thursday that it will begin in-season blood-testing for human growth hormone and additional testing for testosterone this year. Batting leader Melky Cabrera of the San Francisco Giants and Oakland Athletics pitcher Bartolo Colon were both suspended last season after tests revealed elevated levels of testosterone. "This agreement addresses critical drug issues and symbolizes Major League Baseball's continued vigilance against synthetic human growth hormone, testosterone and other performance-enhancing substances," Commissioner Bud Selig said in a statement.