Here's your wakeup call -- a combination of newsworthy andor interesting tidbits -- for Friday, November 23:
AUTO RACING
Their TV ratings plummeted in 2012, so NASCAR plans to do something about it. (AP)
BASEBALL
A friend of Andy Pettitte's says Pettitte will decide whether to return to the Yankees in 2013 by the end of next week. (NBC's Hardball Talk)
Mark Buehrle's not leaving Miami with a smile on his lips and a song in his heart, that's for sure (AP)
Even though yesterday wasn't Thanksgiving in Canada, the Canadians received something to be thankful for. I mean, who wouldn't be thankful for a daily dose of Kevin Millar? (Hardball Talk)
Players have heard President Obama's talk of letting the Bush tax cuts expire for people earning over 200,000 -- which is everyone who wears an MLB uniform -- so a lot of them are trying to quickly sign front-loaded deals, in which they'd get a lot of their money in 2012 before the changes go into effect. (AP)
COLLEGE BASKETBALL
Sure sounds like if UConn had its way, it would be joining former Big East partners BC, Syracuse and Pittsburgh in the ACC. (AP)
Sorry, Sean Woods. This is 2012. The days when coaches can go all Bobby Knight on players are over. (AP)
Louisville didn't look like the No. 2 team in the country against Northern Iowa. (AP)
COLLEGE FOOTBALL
TCU made its first Thanksgiving appearance since 1928 a good one, much to Texas' chagrin. (AP)
The NCAA gets taken to the woodshed by a Los Angeles judge over what he calls a "malicious" investigation of a USC assistant coach in the Reggie Bush scandal. (AP)
Let's see if it can be less malicious as it pokes around at Auburn. (AP)
HOCKEY
It's gotten so ugly in the NHL labor talks that Sabres goalie Ryan Miller thinks it's time for the union to roll out its nuclear weapon: Decertification. (NBC's Pro Hockey Talk)
On the other hand, public cracks on both sides of the wall could be a signal that pressure is building on Messers Fehr and Bettman to make a deal. (Pro Hockey Talk)
PRO BASKETBALL
From the Life Is Stranger Than Fiction file: An orphanage in Kenya has made a video re-living the famous Larry Bird-to-Dennis Johnson steal in Game 5 of the 1987 Eastern Conference Finals in an attempt to raise money. (NBC's Pro Basketball Talk) So which of the orphans gets to play Bill Laimbeer planted like an oak tree under the basket, forcing Isiah Thomas to loft the pass that gets plucked by Bird, and which of them gets to play Dennis Rodman dancing with his back to the play at center court, giving Thomas one less target to throw to?
Mike D'Antoni's Era of Good Feeling sure didn't last long. (AP)
It's no consolation to the Raptors, I'm sure, but the NBA admits that the referees missed a shooting foul by Charlotte's Michael Kidd-Gilchrist with 2.4 seconds left in Toronto's one-point loss to the Bobcats on Wednesday. (AP)
Apparently no one was more shocked about Kevin Love's surprise return than his Timberwolves teammates, who basically stood around and let him carry the load as Minnesota lost to the Nuggets. (AP)
Ladies and gentlemen, our first flopping fine! (AP)
Uh, oh. The players are beginning to publicly question old friend Lawrence Frank in Detroit. (Pro Basketball Talk)
PRO FOOTBALL
Thanks to a call described (correctly) as "as bad as anything we saw from the replacement refs" -- and compounded by a ridiculous NFL rule that prevented the play from being reviewed -- Houston escaped with a Thanksgiving Day win over Detroit that keeps the Texans ahead of Baltimore and New England and in the No. 1 spot in the AFC. (NBC's Pro Football Talk)
After watching a furious Jim Schwartz impulsively toss the challenge flag -- when he said afterwards he knew full well that doing so would negate the chance for a review -- the question of why the undisciplined Lions so often play like a bunch of clowns becomes a little less mysterious. (AP)
And the biggest clown of all, Ndamukong Suh, was at it again yesterday. (AP)
As for the Texans? They'll take it. (CSN Houston)
Wow. All of a sudden, the Redskins are players in the NFC East race. (CSN Washington)
This is a recording: Mark Sanchez is our quarterback. This is a recording. (NBC's Pro Football Talk)
Last night he had to be, because it turns out Tim Tebow has a couple of broken ribs. (AP)
Hold on, hold on; now the 49ers are saying there's a chance Alex Smith will play against the Saints on Sunday. (CSN Bay Area)
The key to Peyton Manning's success in Denver? That he knows, and accepts, he's not a kid anymore, and has adjusted his game accordingly . . . in a way that Broncos coach John Fox describes as "freaking historical". (Pro Football Talk)
Ben Roethlisberger's a new father. (AP)