Make The Team

QUONSET POINT, R.I. -- Like a billowing cloud of steam, the spinnaker undulates and hovers over the bow as the boat cuts through the waves of Rhode Island Sound.Suddenly, the ghost-like form plunges onto the deck. A crewman is standing in a hatch, furiously hauling the sail into a storage compartment below deck, his arms pumping violently and his head and shoulders engulfed by the white mass.In about five seconds, Ryan McCrillis has packed 4,500 square feet of silky cloth into a bag the size of a bale of cotton.

The Ravens went into Friday night's preseason finale against the New York Giants as the best defense in the NFL.Think about that. Suspend the cold reality that the preseason means nothing, that exhibition games are inhabited by countless players going nowhere in the big leagues, that offenses are notoriously conservative by design in August, generally tipping the scales in favor of defenses.Then, think about this. Two years ago, the Ravens came to Baltimore and unleashed one of the worst defenses in history upon the land.

After watching teammate Eric Zeier lead the Ravens to their first victory since Oct. 26 and their first home victory in three months, Ravens quarterback Vinny Testaverde deftly sidestepped the post-game question regarding the depth chart at that position.Should Zeier start next week's game against the Tennessee Oilers?"That's Ted's decision," said Testaverde, referring to coach Ted Marchibroda. "Whatever he decides has to be OK. I'm not looking at it from either side of the coin. I'll continue to do my best, no matter what happens."

WESTMINSTER -- You walk down the long, dark hallway leading from the locker room, hit the panic bar on the double doors and step into the blinding sunshine.It's a little before 9 in the morning, but already the air feels thick and hot. Before you are two football fields, green and lush and perfectly lined. You stare at them a moment and then slap on your helmet and jog lightly past your new coaches, who look at you like you're a hair they found in their soup.As you run onto the field, some of the few hundred fans in the bleachers look up your number in their programs to see if they've ever heard of you. But, hell, you're a nobody.

They have handled similar situations the only way they know (( how -- with class.One is rich, famous and a future Hall of Famer.The other is a senior at Howard High.Say hello to Cal Ripken and Rachel Grantham."Cal Ripken would rather be playing shortstop, there's no doubt about it," said Howard coach Dave Vezzi. "But Cal's playing third base and helping his team. Rachel's the same way. She's not going to come out and say, 'I don't want to play second base, I want to be pitching.' She's going to help the team whatever way she can, and if playing second base is where she's going to help, that's what she'll do."

It was four years ago when Ashlee Douglas was a senior at North Carroll considering what college to attend and which sport to play."I only looked at Towson State and Western Maryland College, and I wasn't sure what I wanted to play," she said last fall. "Then I just thought, 'Why not go for it all?' At Towson, I could play Division I ball with a new program, and figured I had a chance to make an impact from the start."The "Division I ball" she was referring to was soccer and she indeed made an impact, leading the Tigers to a 10-7-2 mark this past fall and finishing her four-year career as the program's all-time scoring leader with 18 goals and another school record 26 assists.

There's nothing like a warm, fuzzy baseball story to liven up a cold, snowy day, which might help explain why more than a dozen reporters and photographers converged on Camden Yards yesterday, all hot on the trail of the Free Agent Fan.Surely by now you've heard of The Fan -- a k a Virginia business management consultant Michael Volpe. He's the guy who got so fed up after his beloved team, the San Francisco Giants, traded All-Star third baseman Matt Williams that he sent the team a letter ending the relationship and declaring himself a free agent.

ATLANTA -- Octavian Belu says there is no magic, no mystery and no mercy about his Romanian women's gymnastics team."The secret is to work seven hours a day, seven days a week," he said. "We must stay in the training all the time. Be a family. We want to replace the family, mothers and fathers. The gymnasts make some sacrifice. They accept rules."And they win.This may make American television executives nervous, but it's the Romanians, not the Americans, who are the favorites to take the women's team gold and dominate the first week of the 1996 Summer Olympics.

TORONTO -- The topic of discussion in Davey Johnson's office shifted naturally from Brady Anderson's incredibly long homer against the Toronto Blue Jays yesterday -- the 100th of Anderson's career and the 28th of his season -- to whether the Orioles center fielder might be included in the home run-hitting contest at the All-Star Game next week.Johnson's eyebrows arched and his voice expressed mock horror at the thought. "Jeez, I hope they don't put him in it," Johnson said.He then mimicked Anderson's long, high finish to his swung.

BOSTON -- The television cameras followed Dominique Moceanu's every move yesterday at the FleetCenter. From the press box where Moceanu and the other gymnasts here for the U.S. Olympic trials conducted an hour's worth of interviews to the floor of the mostly empty arena where Moceanu stretched and the others practiced for tonight's compulsory program.It seemed only fitting.It didn't matter that Moceanu wasn't competing in the trials because of a stress fracture in her right leg. If anything, her absence from the competition was a bigger story because it raised questions about her ability to perform at next month's Olympic Games and about the way the U.S. women's team is being selected.