Sayonara, Spike.

[January 19th, 2005] For months, a group associated with Art Savage, owner of the West Sacramento Triple-A baseball team and a noted hardball negotiator, has been in talks with the Pacific Coast League to purchase the Portland Beavers. Now, however, there is new suitor in the wings. Hilary Drammis, the soon-to-be-former owner of the Salt Lake Triple-A team and the daughter of a former owner of the Portland Beavers, told Murmurs operative Brandon Hartley she's interested. Under the rules of minor-league baseball, Drammis cannot make a move until Savage's negotiations fall through or the end of January, whichever comes first. Drammis denied rumors that she and her partners have consulted a local law firm on logistics, but says she hopes to snag the Beavers in time for the 2005 season.

News editor John Schrag will soon be leaving WW for the News-Times, a Forest Grove weekly owned by Robert Pamplin's Community Newspapers Inc. After 14 years of "news with an edge," Schrag will be editor and publisher for theNews-Times, subjecting its staff to histrademark abusive, hard-driving style ...wait. Sorry-wrong notebook. Actually, the N-T will be the lucky beneficiary of "Spike" Schrag's masterful ability to muster copy to the press, much sharpened and improved, while maintaining an improbably sunny disposition. One of the ink trade's true gentlemen , Schrag has patiently reared generations of temperamental staff reporters since taking the reins ofWW's news section in 199-well, none of us are really sure. Prior to that appointment, he was the unfailingly polite curse of many Oregon politicos' existence as a reporter in Salem and at City Hall. WW will miss his wit, grace, talent and unmatched ability to keep a cool head under fire. Asked to comment, the new corporate executive referred questions toWW's attorney,Rod Lewis .

Inside sources at Portland State University report that former Hollywood heartthrob William Hurt has been exploring the idea of joining the faculty of the theater department. Hurt, who appeared in Artists Repertory Theatre's production of Drawer Boy last season, has made it known that he's become smitten with Portland.