Team Chemistry

For nearly a month each summer, Ravens players move from their luxurious homes to a two-story hotel, where they share a room that is smaller than some of their man caves. Instead of fancy dinners with significant others, they eat in a cafeteria with 80 of their closest (and largest) friends. Nighttime trips to clubs are replaced by evening meetings. As a result, their thoughts are squarely on football. Their circle of friends during training camp is composed of teammates. It's the ultimate in team-building.

AL schedule a mistakeDoes it strike anyone else as odd that the Orioles will, on consecutive road trips, travel to Kansas City?I hope that when the National League expands to 14 teams, it will take a few moments and study the scheduling blunders that have been the hallmark of AL baseball since 1977.Jesse Howard CroftonProblems at the topThe Orioles are among the worst teams in baseball, but they are perhaps the best at dissembling and hucksterism. Two recent events emphatically underscore my contention.

ARLINGTON, Texas -- When asked, Kenny Rogers will always spend a second pondering the Kevin Brown question. Like a defense witness being grilled by the prosecutor, he cocks his head and pauses, as if in search of just the right answer.Be aware this is a big-time friendship that goes beyond baseball. Families are also involved. Brown, Rogers and Rafael Palmeiro enjoyed spending time together both on and off the field when all three played for the Texas Rangers.But it's his friendship with Brown that Rogers now has to defend.

If the Chicago Cubs survive the four-team scrum for the National League wild-card berth this week, a plastic deer with a child-sized Kyle Farnsworth jersey could find itself resting beside Steve Bartman and Harry Caray in franchise lore. The Cubs added the plastic deer to their traveling party, adorning him with the Farnsworth jersey, and wound up finishing 8-4 on their latest road trip. Who knows? Maybe they've found the answer to the Curse of the Billy Goat. This late in the season, teams will look to anything for a psychological edge.

Catonsville guard Shamika Williams drew a lot of attention last year when she led the Comets to an upset victory over Western at the Basketball Academy. She later scored 27 points in leading her team to the Baltimore County title, earning a spot on the All-Metro first team. This season, Williams, 17, is again the centerpiece of the Comets' unbeaten No. 9 team. The multitalented 5-foot-7 player averages 15.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, 4.3 steals and 3.5 assists. A veteran of the Baltimore Cougars Amateur Athletic Union program, Williams signed early to play for UMBC.

SARASOTA, Fla. -- As usual, Cal Ripken said all the right things. He said it hurt not having his father and brother at spring training. He said he felt lost without them in his first workout. And he said he was a professional who will carry on.So, what did you expect? Ripken is a born trooper. He isn't thrilled the Orioles released his brother, Bill, and fired his father, Cal Sr. But he also isn't going to make his innermost feelings public or, heaven forbid, let them affect his play.The Orioles knew this when they broke up the family within four months after Ripken signed his five-year, $30.5 million contract last August.

It's hard to imagine a humbling experience for a group of players who have made hundreds of millions of dollars and 30 All-Star game appearances combined, had their likenesses plastered on magazines and souvenirs, and been admired and treated like royalty..But to a man, the 12 men who make up Dream Team II experienced a special feeling last week when prior to a game at rTC the Charlotte Coliseum they received their uniforms with "USA" across the front."When they finally pulled out the uniforms, and it's got that 'USA' on the front," Cleveland Cavaliers guard Mark Price said after the team's first exhibition last week against Germany, "well, let's just say there's not a lot of people who can say they got a chance to represent their country."

SEOUL, South Korea - Soon, the debacle of 1998 will no longer matter. Sixteen days from now, the United States' men's soccer team's woeful performance in the 1998 World Cup will have ceased being an issue. Instead, fans might well be talking about the debacle of 2002. Four years have passed, new players have emerged, a new coach has revitalized the team, and more than a few results have gone the Americans' way, but all that does not mean that the United States team will do any better competitively this time around.

The laboratory in team chemistry that the U.S. national men's soccer team has become will resume in next Thursday's game against Ecuador at Memorial Stadium.U.S. coach Steve Sampson announced the roster for that game yesterday, a 17-man squad that includes 12 players who haven't seen national duty in at least six months, many of them for longer.The players are being called up from five of Major League Soccer's 10 franchises, but none of the three regulars from this area's representative, D.C. United, is among them.

Because of injuries, suspensions and more injuries, this is where it stands for the struggling Blast: Only 13 players are likely to be available for Sunday's game in Kansas City. "It's crazy. We've lost seven of our top 16 guys. But there's nothing you can do about it. It is what it is," said Kevin Healey, Blast coach and general manager. Two of the team's recent additions - midfielder Henry Gutierrez and forward Lester Felician - were the latest to go down, both in Saturday's 20-6 loss in Cleveland, the Blast's seventh in eight games.