Wakeup call: Can anything stop the Orioles?

Here's your wakeup call -- a combination of newsworthy andor interesting tidbits -- for Wednesday, September 12:

BASEBALL
Their players keep dropping and they keep on winning. Can anything stop the Orioles? (CSN Baltimore)

The Yankees aren't the only historic franchise in freefall. (AP)

Eleven straight wins on the road (and the latest was a doozy). Twenty-one games over .500. Three games out in the division and in a tie for the wild-card lead. Who are these guys?? (CSN Bay Area)

Forget winning the division. Forget making the playoffs. (Both of those possibilities seemed more than doable not too long ago.) How about just avoiding your 20th straight losing season, Pirates? (NBC's Hardball Talk)

They're loving that extra wild-card berth in Philadelphia right about now. (CSN Philly)

Yes, that's ex-Red Sox farmhand Brandon Moss threatening to become the seventh player in history to hit 20 homers in a season of 250 or fewer at-bats. (Hardball Talk) And the hits just keep on coming . . .

You know you throw hard when you hit 96 on the gun and alarm bells about decreased velocity start sounding. (AP)

Brandon McCarthy has gone home from the hospital. (CSN Bay Area)

COLLEGE BASKETBALL
The strange journey of Billy Gillispie is winding its way to the Mayo Clinic. (AP)

COLLEGE FOOTBALL
The injury bug bites at Oregon. (AP)

And Purdue. (AP)

But it's The Man who's taking out players at Mississippi. (AP)

A coach in Tennessee drops a dime on a Mississippi State freshman defensive back . . . to talk radio. (AP)

Coming Saturday: UConn's first game against former coach Randy Edsall, who left for Maryland without even saying goodbye to his players. Suffice to say, the Huskies haven't forgotten. (AP)

Hey, they're student-athletes, right? (AP)

HOCKEY
Like all of us, Sidney Crosby doesn't want to think about a lockout. (NBC's Pro Hockey Talk)

PRO FOOTBALL
If Bountygate didn't teach the coaches they need a union, nothing will. (NBC's Pro Football Talk)

Speaking of which, Roger Goodell and the four players whose suspensions were lifted by an appeals panel are going to have a meeting. (AP)

The game's still a day away, but Jay Cutler's already talking trash against the Packers. (Pro Football Talk)

The Steelers hope James Harrison will be good to go Sunday against the Jets. (AP)

The headline: 'Ravens owner Modell remembered fondly at funeral'. (AP) Odds are pretty strong, then, that nobody from Cleveland was there.

Any hopes of the Patriots appearing on 'Hard Knocks' are probably out the window now. (Pro Football Talk)