Heavy Load

Pro basketball's MVP award has been welded to Larry Bird's mantelpiece for three years now, no doubt protected by a moat and guarded by a pack of Doberman pinschers. Before this season, it seemed as if the trophy was Bird's permanent property. He had more MVP trophies than Steve Carlton had no-comments. Turns out, he may have been only renting it after all. Judging from the early caucuses, this year's MVP balloting is tilting toward Earvin Johnson, who has brilliantly waved his Magic wand to keep the Lakers levitating above the rest of the NBA with a 40-13 record.

Passing along some city high school football tidbits . . .  Germantown's Will Parks already owned a scholarship to Pittsburgh for his cornerbacking skills and major respect for his pass-catching prowess. Then, as the Bears on Friday claimed a 24-12 win over visiting Northeast, the defending Public AAAA champ, he may have set an off-the-wall city record as a rusher. Parks posted three touchdowns while ringing up the not-so-grand total of 7 yards (on five carries).

It was an emotional week all around for the Pennypacker family, leading up to the Pottsgrove football coach's final game against his son, Spring-Ford lineman Ross Pennypacker. Spring-Ford won the contest Friday night, 19-14, in a hard-fought game that belied the love between the father and son. "It was a great game. We had a chance to beat them - I think we outplayed them," Rick Pennypacker said. "We double-teamed [Ross] every play. He wasn't going to beat me. " At the end of the game, the two met one last time on the 50-yard line - alone - and then returned to their respective teams.

As the name suggests, Ed Stefanski was once a hoophead. He remembers, back in his toddler days, being dragged to Monsignor Bonner High's basketball practices by his father, the coach, in the Catholic League championship season of 1982-83, and even serving a purpose. "Sometimes in drills," he said, "I'd stand on the court and the players would dribble around me. " These days, Ed Sr., who played at Bonner and Penn, is an analyst for Comcast's broadcasts of Atlantic 10 basketball.

They will come early and stay late at title insurance offices around Philadelphia on Monday, the last day of the month and a day likely to see a record number of house-sale closings at many local offices. "I honestly think that if you called any title company at this point looking for a closing on Monday, they'd start laughing," Beverly Ronca of Industrial Valley Title Insurance Co. in Philadelphia said yesterday. "Everyone is running all their clerks on overtime. " The housing market has been hot over the last several months, following the decline in mortgage rates to 10 percent or below for the first time in several years.

Dear Polly: As a dog owner, I have the task of cleaning up after my dog. Normally I buy inexpensive sandwich-size plastic bags, since they are easily slipped over the hand to act as a glove, then pulled off and folded or tied to be disposed. Recently I discovered the plastic sleeves the newspapers are delivered in are even better, especially if you are using an empty lot where the grass grows tall, as I do. The sleeve fits further up the arm and there is no chance of getting your arm wet from the morning dew. To keep a clean, fresh smell in your car without the expense or heavy perfumes of deodorizers, unwrap a bar of your favorite soap and stick it under the seat.

Deashawn Goddard started the season with a bang, rushing for 222 yards in Lower Merion's opening-game win over Chichester and 274 more in a victory over Conwell-Egan. Then came the knee injury. And six straight losses. The heavy load Goddard took into Lower Merion's game against Marple Newtown Saturday was only partly attributable to the brace on his right knee. "It was frustrating, real frustrating," Goddard said. "We'd work hard, we'd be in games and then we'd give up a couple plays and lose.

Michael Cook glides about a basketball court with braces strapped to both ankles and usually with more than one defender joined at his hip. Not that it seemed to bother the Friends' Central sophomore swingman yesterday. Cook scored 25 points, dealt eight assists and pulled down seven rebounds in an 80-64 nonleague win over Church Farm that had opposing coach William Frantz singing Cook's praises. "He's the best player we've seen this year," said Frantz, whose team faces the Christian Academy in the first round of the Keystone Conference playoffs tomorrow night.

Of all the film clips and photographs I've seen of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., I can remember only one in which he was dressed in a tuxedo, and that was when he received the Nobel Peace Prize. Usually he wore a dark suit, white shirt and tie, or sometimes even jeans and an open-necked shirt. As a man who spoke for the poor and oppressed, it wouldn't have done his image much good to be photographed clinking glasses at a cocktail party where everyone was elegantly dressed.

P assing along some city high school football tidbits . . . Germantown's Will Parks already owned a scholarship to Pittsburgh for his cornerbacking skills and major respect for his pass-catching prowess. Then, as the Bears on Friday claimed a 24-12 win over visiting Northeast, the defending Public AAAA champ, he may have set an off-the-wall city record as a rusher. Parks posted three touchdowns while ringing up the not-so-grand total of 7 yards (on five carries)

The frightening creature the Eagles had for most of last season at running back doesn't exist anymore. Two of the heads from the three-headed monster have been cut off. The always popular "Duuuuuce" chants may return to Lincoln Financial Field on Thursday night, but only because Duce Staley is visiting with his new team, the Pittsburgh Steelers. And, as expected, the Eagles officially announced yesterday that Correll Buckhalter will need season-ending surgery to repair a torn patella tendon in his right knee.

He is 5-foot-8 and a mere 200 pounds, but Brian Westbrook has been carrying a heavy load for the Eagles of late. The second-year running back out of Villanova has emerged as the Birds' leading rusher, amassing 298 yards and four touchdowns, while handling their punt and kickoff return duties. Last week, Westbrook gave the Eagles an improbable 14-10 win over the Giants when he returned a punt 84 yards into the end zone. Earlier this week, Westbrook sat down to discuss his recent success, his high school hoops career, being short, and the value of hard work.

The day after reaching down into their near-empty fuel tanks to salvage an important 2-2 tie with the Russians late Saturday night, members of the U.S. men's hockey team were still raving about the performance of goaltender Mike Richter. "He was fantastic," John LeClair said after Team USA's practice yesterday. "Without him we could have lost that game, 6-2. He was fabulous. " Richter made 33 saves, 16 of which came in the second period when the Russians took up residency in Team USA's end of the rink but could only score one power-play goal.

Struggling on a four-game losing streak, the Phillies begin a crucial homestand tomorrow night in which they will face two of the top teams - Houston and Arizona - and several of the top pitchers in the National League. After yesterday's 9-0 loss to the St. Louis Cardinals, manager Larry Bowa had an admonition for his team, which lost its hold on first place in the NL East while suffering a three-game sweep against the Cards. "We've got to play better or we can get buried," Bowa said.

Thirteen-year-old Earl Cooke leaves for school each morning carrying a heavy load - 25 pounds of textbooks in a low-riding backpack. The weight forces the 102-pound, 5-foot-4 seventh grader at Devon Preparatory School to bend slightly forward as he walks. His burden is the reason that Cooke, of Downingtown, was selected to participate in a study of backpacks and pain conducted by Richard W. Kruse, a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Alfred I. du Pont Hospital for Children in Wilmington.

Michael Cook glides about a basketball court with braces strapped to both ankles and usually with more than one defender joined at his hip. Not that it seemed to bother the Friends' Central sophomore swingman yesterday. Cook scored 25 points, dealt eight assists and pulled down seven rebounds in an 80-64 nonleague win over Church Farm that had opposing coach William Frantz singing Cook's praises. "He's the best player we've seen this year," said Frantz, whose team faces the Christian Academy in the first round of the Keystone Conference playoffs tomorrow night.

It was an emotional week all around for the Pennypacker family, leading up to the Pottsgrove football coach's final game against his son, Spring-Ford lineman Ross Pennypacker. Spring-Ford won the contest Friday night, 19-14, in a hard-fought game that belied the love between the father and son. "It was a great game. We had a chance to beat them - I think we outplayed them," Rick Pennypacker said. "We double-teamed [Ross] every play. He wasn't going to beat me. " At the end of the game, the two met one last time on the 50-yard line - alone - and then returned to their respective teams.

When the Boston Red Sox clinched a spot in the playoffs last week, all the players came romping from the dugout to briefly congratulate each other. Only one emerged to perform a cartwheel, however. Even if the exuberance of Pedro Martinez - as he flipped his weight across the most valuable right shoulder in baseball - caused his manager and teammates to shake their heads, there was no denying that the diminutive 27-year-old starter had earned the right to celebrate. Martinez has unfurled one of the greatest single-season pitching performances in baseball history, a statistical tour de force that can be stacked up against the benchmark seasons of Bob Gibson in 1968, Steve Carlton in 1972, Ron Guidry in 1978, and a short list of others.