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Miles Field will fall; new all-sports park includes ball stadium By MELISSA MARTIN Mail Tribune The ballpark that's been home to an Oakland Athletics farm team and thousands of minor league and high school games is scheduled for demolition in two years. Miles Field will be torn down by August 2003, said Jackie Rodgers, of the Medford Urban Renewal Agency. But a new baseball stadium will be built at an all-sports park planned near Belknap Road, behind the current stadium, she said. "We hope that ground would be breaking on a new baseball field by August, 2002," Rodgers told the agency's board Tuesday night. Demolishing Miles Field will close a chapter on a 34-year-old Medford landmark and busy baseball diamond. "That's progress," said Mike Miles, whose father, Claude Reece "Shorty" Miles, helped build the ballfield. "But I think the land is best suited for commercial development, said Miles, who played American Legion ball at Miles Field. "I'm looking forward to a new field at the all-sports park." The field's namesake was a World War I veteran who played in the 1930s-era Missoula League, a professional team that competed in Northwest railroad towns. "My dad never wanted that ballpark named after him because it was all done by volunteers," Mike Miles said. "Batzer Construction brought their heavy equipment out for the dugouts. One day, my Dad took me out and introduced me to an electrician, a one-man operation, who was working at Miles Field on weekends." Neither did his dad want a professional team using the field, he said. But Miles Field was home to the Timberjacks, an Oakland A's affiliate that moved to Vancouver, British Columbia, after the 1999 season. Currently, the field is used by North and South Medford high school players, American Legion and other youth teams. Jackson County owns the 14 acres that Miles Field sits on and Medford Urban Renewal Agency serves as the property agent, said Don Burt, urban renewal director. "We have a developer who is interested in the property, and the question is, What do we do with Miles Field?" Because public money has been invested to improve Miles Field, the county can't simply bulldoze the stadium, Burt said. If and when the 14 acres is sold, the money will be used to help build a new facility, he said. "It's kind of sad to move it, but everyone knew that sooner or later it would happen," said Jim McAbee, who coached Medford high school baseball from 1968 to 1994. "I think the concern is that something be in place to replace it," McAbee said. "They shouldn't tear Miles Field out and not have something ready when the next spring rolls around." In other action Tuesday, the Medford Urban Renewal Agency Board agreed to the $480,000 purchase of the Skinner property on the corner of Riverside and 10th streets. It will be used for parking for the new Medford library and Rogue Community College. The board also accepted a 10-year, $6000,000 state loan to help purchase land at Main and Fir streets for the Winetrout building, which will have 49 apartments, a 420-space parking garage and 70,000 square feet of commercial space. Reach reporter Melissa Martin at 776-4497, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.