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County brushes T'jacks owner back from outfield pads By CHRIS BRISTOL If you build it, they will come. But who owns it when they leave? That question was postulated recently in lawsuit form when Jackson County sued Fred Herrmann, part-owner and president of the dearly departed Southern Oregon Timberjacks baseball team, over ownership of crash pads at Miles Field. That's right, crash pads, which protected players like current Oakland A's slugger Ben Grieve if and when they strayed too close to the outfield wall in pursuit of fly balls. The county owns Miles Field. "At 3:15 p.m. on this date I received a phone call from Randy Hutton of the County Parks Department," county counsel Mike Jewett explained in a hastily written affidavit filed Friday. "He told me that defendant Fred Herman has removed the crash padding, stacked it, and is preparing to remove it from the state." The minor league Timberjacks are co-owned by Herrmann, who packed up his team after the 1999 season and headed north for Vancouver, B.C. The T'jacks, an Oakland A's farm team, had been in Medford since 1979. As part of the lawsuit, Jewett sought a temporary restraining order barring Herrmann and his minions from removing the padding. A judge signed it. Loss of the crash pads would endanger participants in youth baseball games at Miles Field, the affidavit said. Jewett also complained that it could be difficult to get them back. "I have no idea how to contact Mr. Herman or any agent of any defendant," Jewett wrote, referring to Herrmann's company National Sports Organization Inc. In a statement Tuesday, Jewett described an "exchange" of paperwork with Herrmann's attorney in Medford and a probable resolution. "We'll know more tomorrow," he said. "I expect if it's resolved we'll be dismissing the case and consider it worked out." Herrmann's attorney, Doug Schmor, did not return a phone call seeking comment. Today's Edition : News | Sports | Business | Weather | Tempo | Classifieds Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 2000, Medford, Oregon USA