Shopping List

In Philadelphia, the team president won't even give a full vote of confidence to the general manager and manager. In Toronto, Blue Jays general manager Gord Ash holds a conference call with his town's reporters, and reads his list of managerial candidates - or at least most of them. The list, which includes Angels coach and former Phil Larry Bowa, is as interesting for who is not on it as for who is. Jim Fregosi is not on it. Neither is perennially overlooked Chris Chambliss.

The cost of the 35 food items tracked in our monthly Market Basket survey increased 2.4 percent over the last month and 8.88 percent over the year. The current $48.76 Market Basket total cost for those foods is based on the best price (including sales and specials) found among three stores in the area's major chains. Sale prices on cheese, margarine, mayonnaise, coffee, peanut butter, orange juice, tomatoes, sirloin steak and whole chickens helped to balance increases on other products such as canned peaches, dried beans and cereal.

If you're the Green Bay Packers, you just want to hang on to what you have. If you're the Atlanta Falcons, the New York Jets or the New Orleans Saints, you'll take two of everything. If you're the Eagles, you stay up late tonight and place a 12:01 a.m. call to agent Eugene Parker, who represents Packers free-agent defensive tackle Gilbert Brown, and get Brown a first-class seat on an early-morning flight to Philadelphia. Welcome to Free Agency V. In the next two or three weeks, Super Bowl-obsessed NFL teams are going to make dozens of coveted players like Brown rich beyond their wildest dreams.

If you polled the NFL's head coaches and general managers about free agency, most of them would tell you they despise it. Most of them would tell you they prefer the good, old days, when men were men and teams were built - or destroyed - strictly through the draft and not some rich guy's checkbook. But free agency is a fact of life now in the NFL, and even those who loathe it have learned to cope with it. Friday, the fun starts again. Nearly 350 players will become unrestricted free agents, able to sign with any team that covets them.

Eric, 10, is in a school program in which he gets to help others, play sports, and work with computers. He does his best in all areas and enjoys the activities. As part of this program, Eric helps senior citizens with their grocery shopping, gathering items from a shopping list and paying for them with the money he's given. Among Eric's favorite activities are bowling, swimming, playing baseball and roller-blading. He also likes riding his bike, potting plants and watching them grow, dancing, and going to church.

Atlantic 10 commissioner Ron Bertovich has confirmed that Virginia Tech is one of the schools his conference is considering as a replacement for Big 10- bound Penn State. But at the same time, he denied published reports that the school already had been extended an invitation to join when Penn State leaves at the end of the current school year. "There have been discussions, but not any invitations," Bertovich told the Daily News yesterday. Quoting anonymous sources, the Dominion Post of Morgantown, W.Va.

Local food prices have dropped sharply this month, all but offsetting the big increases recorded in the last two months' surveys. The cost of our Market Basket shopping list of 35 representative foods fell 6.9 percent from July's levels and now stands 3 percent below those of one year ago. This month's Market Basket cost $47.61, compared with $51.14 last month and $49.07 in August 1987. Some of this month's savings can be traced to lower "regular" prices for flour, sugar, dried beans, cereal, rice, canned soup, peaches and pineapple at two markets we surveyed - in Brookhaven, Delaware County, and in Northeast Philadelphia.

The Eagles' personnel staff continues to explore the availability and signability of several free agents who have yet to land with new teams. Sources said yesterday the Birds have contacted a handful of players, including defensive tackles Tony Casillas (Dallas) and former Eagle Mike Golic, recently released by Miami. Although the Eagles' interest in Casillas is serious, the ex-Cowboy's salary desires and questionable health (reportedly high blood pressure) make him a remote possibility.

This is an especially good time for comparison food shopping. Our monthly Market Basket survey shows only a small change in the overall cost of food since last month. But that steadiness was achieved despite some wide fluctuations in the prices of individual items from one store to another. The cost of our representative shopping list declined 0.5 percent, to $46.33, from July's $46.58, which was the highest total recorded for the 35- item Market Basket. This month's prices were 3.5 percent higher than the $44.74 total recorded in August 1986.

Thaddeus Young doesn't yet have an agent. Doesn't have any contract celebration stories, either. "If you call going to my room and getting some rest celebrating, that's what I did," the first of the 76ers' two first-round draft choices said in a conference call with reporters yesterday after signing his rookie contract. Young, the No. 12 overall pick in the NBA's June 28 draft, is guaranteed $1,525,600 and $1,640,100 for two seasons on the league's rookie scale. Jason Smith, taken No. 20 by the Miami Heat and traded to the Sixers on draft night, also signed yesterday, accepting guarantees of $1,028,200 and $1,105,300.

NEW YORK - It's graduation season, which means there's no shortage of lectures for new college graduates about the things they shouldn't buy. This isn't one. No matter how tight the budgets of new baccalaureates, some spending is required. Here are a few of the items that should be at the top of every grad's shopping list. Go to lunch: This isn't to endorse eating out when leftovers at your desk will do. But there's great value in calling a senior colleague at work, a recruiter at a place you want to work, or a mentor from a previous job and asking him or her to lunch.

INDIANAPOLIS - Having crossed third base, backup catcher and utility infielder off their shopping list before even picking up their winter meetings room keys, all that's left for the Phillies entourage now is to hum a familiar refrain. It always circles back to pitching, doesn't it? General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has made himself clear. He's looking for relief help, especially arms that can pitch later in the game, when the pressure begins to build. He'd like a starter who could compete for the fifth spot.

Ed Stefanski left for Las Vegas yesterday to watch a group of NBA players work out. But at a time when the 76ers' president and general manager is considering free agents to bring to Philadelphia, none of the assembled pros will be candidates to become new members of his team. He was headed for a minicamp being held for the USA men's national squad. The 76ers' Andre Iguodala and Thaddeus Young were two of the 25 invitees, and while Stefanski is there to lend them some support, the trip is also an opportunity for him to rub shoulders with front-office personnel from other organizations, as well as agents.

Steak, chicken, eggs and lettuce. Lots of lettuce. If you've been to the grocery store lately, you've noticed that while you're buying the same foods, your bill is steadily climbing. Where you once spent $100, you're now shelling out $140 or even $160. The supermarket price explosion is still a subject of debate among economists, but many point to a confluence of events over the past two years - some call it a perfect storm. Corn-based products have skyrocketed because corn prices are up, as farmers cash in on increased demand for the product used to make the pricey alternative fuel ethanol.

Even more athletic, the man said when he took over, and there's no reason not to take Ed Stefanski at his word. So, with the Sixers a little more than halfway through another muddling season, Stefanski has a little less than a month before the trade deadline to increase his team's wingspan and lateral quickness. It seems clear the new core of this team is Andre Iguodala (very athletic), Thaddeus Young (ditto), Jason Smith (pretty athletic for a 7-footer), Samuel Dalembert (very athletic for a 7-footer)

MOST PEOPLE pay for their groceries with three currencies - money, time and angst. Grocery stores are getting bigger and more complicated. Unless you have all day, wandering aimlessly through the store can be frustrating, and it can wreck your budget. "Start with a plan," suggested Susan Mitchell, a nutritional consultant for SuperTarget stores, "preferably a running grocery list that you add to at home every time you run out of something. " Here are some other time- and money-saving tips for your next shopping trip.

New-age Irish singer Enya's music played softly in the background, as the freshly lit candles sent a soft glow over a table graced with fine china and generous glasses of wine on a table covered with a crisp linen cloth. Yup, it's Wednesday night dinner at Scott and Maureen Murphy's modest townhouse in Chesterbrook - and that's how it is every night. But it wasn't always so. Scott Murphy was happy to take on the task of making dinner every night after he and Maureen got married.

YOU HAVE JUST one weekend - yes, ONE - before Thanksgiving. Don't believe us? Check the calendar; the holiday is early this year. Which means it's time to get organized. Past time, really, but what else to do except get started? Ready or not, your hungry guests will arrive on your doorstep next Thursday. But you will be ready, because we went all the way to Texas to find some experts: Lupe Ayala, owner of La Playa Maya in Fort Worth, who makes two turkeys - one Mexican-style, one traditional - at home every year to feed 25 to 40 family members; Sandee Larkin, another Texas restaurateur (Harrison House in Waxahachie)

Thaddeus Young doesn't yet have an agent. Doesn't have any contract celebration stories, either. "If you call going to my room and getting some rest celebrating, that's what I did," the first of the 76ers' two first-round draft choices said in a conference call with reporters yesterday after signing his rookie contract. Young, the No. 12 overall pick in the NBA's June 28 draft, is guaranteed $1,525,600 and $1,640,100 for two seasons on the league's rookie scale. Jason Smith, taken No. 20 by the Miami Heat and traded to the Sixers on draft night, also signed yesterday, accepting guarantees of $1,028,200 and $1,105,300.

WE'VE DONE THE hard work. Now, finally, it's your turn. The shopping list of endorsements you see here is the result of months of work: researching and interviewing candidates; analyzing budgets, position papers and legislative records; and holding a public forum. (And a few internal knock-down, drag-outs over final choices.) Please do your part, and get out and vote. Don't blow it off. Don't think the fix is in, and it doesn't matter. Don't think that plenty of people you know are going to the polls and one less vote doesn't matter.