Team Meeting

The usual comedic routine was missing from Kevin Millar's act yesterday. He was nothing but serious, an appropriate tone when a team has lost 13 of its past 15 games and its manager must read about his job security almost on a daily basis. Better to hold the laughter. After a 6-4 loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks at Camden Yards that completed another sweep and dropped the Orioles a season-worst 11 games below .500, fueling more speculation that manager Sam Perlozzo could be fired this week, Millar chastised reporters for being too jovial in an otherwise-quiet clubhouse and revealed his plans to call a players-only meeting tomorrow in San Diego.

Billy Reybold, a 6-foot-5, 210-pound junior, has played a big role in the Gators' turnaround season, averaging 15 points and nearly eight rebounds a game in his second varsity season. After going 5-13 last season, Reservoir took a 10-12 mark into this week's regional playoffs. Along with basketball, Reybold has played tight end and defensive end on Reservior's varsity football team the past two years and has been a lacrosse midfielder since his freshman year. He has a 4.0 grade point average with an interest in math and computer science.

College Park -- He told them to play against Clemson - the nation's last unbeaten Division I team - as if their "lives depended on it." In a players-only meeting prompted by Maryland's ugly loss to Miami on Wednesday, senior guard D.J. Strawberry and his teammates spoke of the importance of getting back to the way they had started the season - with eight straight wins. Maryland@Virginia Tuesday, 8 p.m., Ch. 54, 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

PITTSBURGH -- For most of the year, Tina Vagnozzi and Brian Highsmith are your typical couple in love. But the romance dies down when football season begins. You see, Highsmith is a Ravens fan, and Vagnozzi is a Pittsburgh Steelers backer. The couple took their rivalry on the road yesterday to Heinz Field for the game between the bitter AFC North rivals. Highsmith wore a No. 52 jersey with his name on the back underneath a Ravens coat with a Ravens hat and head scarf. Vagnozzi donned a pink Hines Ward jersey under a Steelers jacket, scarf and hat, and carried a "Terrible Towel."

COLLEGE PARK -- Everything seemed to be just a little bit behind schedule yesterday at Comcast Center. Senior guard Mike Jones showed up late to the 8:30 a.m. team meeting and therefore did not start, and the Terps waited until late in the first half to make any kind of a surge against American. Mt. St. Mary's @Maryland Thursday, 8 p.m., 1300 AM, 105.7 FM

With less than three weeks until his swearing-in as the new Anne Arundel County executive, Republican John R. Leopold set up this week a transition team of 50 members and began working in a no-frills government office on Riva Road. Leopold, a five-term state delegate from Pasadena who emerged as the winner after absentee ballots were counted late last week, will announce some of his major picks to head agencies tomorrow. This week, he met with outgoing Executive Janet S. Owens, a two-term Democrat, to discuss the transition.

ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Manager Sam Perlozzo saw enough disturbing signs in the Orioles' 5-2 loss to the Los Angeles Angels in 10 innings Tuesday that he planned to hold a team meeting before yesterday's series finale. But Perlozzo slept on it and decided to meet just with his catcher and starting infielders, a group that includes several team leaders. Perlozzo spoke with Ramon Hernandez, Kevin Millar, Brian Roberts, Miguel Tejada and Melvin Mora for about 15 minutes, urging them to stay positive and play within themselves.

Brian Billick will return as the Ravens' coach next season, a decision that owner Steve Bisciotti surprisingly announced yesterday as the best way to end consecutive underachieving seasons. The Ravens have had their most trying season under Billick, matching the worst start in franchise history at 3-8 to put their Super Bowl-winning coach on the hot seat. But the Ravens' strong finish - winning three of their past four games, including outscoring opponents 78-26 in two prime-time games - likely saved Billick's job. During what players described as an intense, 10-minute speech to open the team meeting yesterday, Bisciotti unexpectedly delivered his first vote of confidence this season, removing months of uncertainty about Billick's job status only four days away from Sunday's season finale in Cleveland.

Spinning serves and kill shots. An orange plastic ball flying over wooden tabletops at speeds nearing 100 mph. Shrieks and grunts from players. Teams from across the nation and from more than 30 countries -- including Argentina, China, Hungary, Trinidad and Venezuela -- converged on the Baltimore Convention Center yesterday for the start of the North American Teams Table Tennis Championships. As a spectator sport, table tennis has been generally ignored in the United States, with most attention given to professional tennis and players with household names.

"I'm a grown man. I know how to act." Darren Sharper Minnesota Vikings safety, after a team meeting Saturday to go over a handbook on the code of conduct