By DAVID PRESZLER

VANCOUVER, Wash. -- For more than a month, the Southern Oregon Timberjacks' physical presence here has consisted of little more than a post office box and a phone number with an answering machine.

But an actual business office is coming soon, and the team is intent on carving out a much larger home, stepping up efforts to move the minor league baseball franchise to this side of the Columbia River.

A deal has yet to be struck, but Vancouver and the Timberjacks are searching for ways to make it happen before the spring of 1999 or 2000. The most formidable hurdle remaining in the Class A team's jaunt north is the financing and construction of a stadium.

"It's real likely and really possible that we are going to get it done," says Doug Combs, the chairman of the committee Vancouver's mayor appointed to study pro baseball.

More than a year after majority owner Fred Herrmann announced the Oakland A's affiliate was looking into the move, little question remains about his intent.

At a public meeting in March to gauge support for the proposed move, Herrmann unveiled a large sign announcing the name of the would-be team: the Vancouver Americans, A's for short.

He has made weekly visits to Vancouver for more than eight months, and his son, Brent, spends four to five days a week in the southern Washington city -- handing out business cards that read "Vancouver A's Your Future Professional Minor League Baseball Team!"

Brent Herrmann says the city has been receptive to the idea of the team moving there.

"The business community is very excited about us coming to town," he says. "The response has been tremendous."

But while the Timberjacks' sales pitch grows more persistent in Vancouver, Fred Herrmann has had little to say in the Rogue Valley. Other than to confirm that he is still looking into the move, he refuses to discuss the issue.

"The future of pro baseball in Southern Oregon looks very good," he says, declining to elaborate.

Timberjacks General Manager Dan Kilgras says that if the move to Vancouver does take place, Herrmann plans to bring in another pro baseball team to fill the void.

"That's kind of his game plan if they are going to leave," Kilgras says. "He does want people to know that he's going to stay here."

Fred Herrmann also has told Gary Miller, president of the Miles Field Community Renovation Society, that Southern Oregon will have pro baseball. The nonprofit group is raising funds to complete a $5 million renovation of Miles Field, the home of the Timberjacks.

The project is scheduled to be completed around 2000, even if the team moves.

"The owners have given us assurance that Southern Oregon will not be without professional baseball," Miller says. "While the Timberjacks are the most visible user of the field, the youth are playing the majority of the games there. That's really why we got this project started. We need to have a place for them to play.

"From a stadium standpoint, we are doing a community project and we are committed to completing it. Obviously, we wish this was a situation we didn't have to deal with."

It's also a situation that is coming to a head in Vancouver.

The second of four public meetings scheduled by the city's baseball committee was Wednesday. Eight potential stadium sites were debated. No site was chosen, but Combs says the three most popular options were the Clark County Fair Grounds, Clark College and a site along Interstate 5 at 99th Street.

The most critical issue -- how to finance a stadium -- will be tackled in the next meeting on May 27. A final meeting is scheduled for June 24. The committee will submit its report to Mayor Royce Pollard by Sept. 1.

Finding the $6 million to $8 million required to build a suitable stadium doesn't look easy. Pollard says the city isn't willing to finance one, and Combs says there's little chance that the team's owners would pay for one.

"That complicates matters greatly," Combs says.

While finding private funding for the stadium is the leading possibility, Combs says Vancouver also will look into a publicly owned stadium -- in which stock would be sold to individuals to raise the money.

The timetable for any move to Vancouver is dependent on how quickly a stadium can be financed and built. The latest Northwest League team to move -- the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes, who relocated from Bellingham, Wash. -- started construction in January 1997 and were playing at Volcanoes Stadium near Keizer by June. Combs isn't sure Vancouver can move at such a rapid pace -- which would likely leave the Timberjacks in Medford for at least the 1999 season.

Any stadium that is constructed would have to be a multi-use facility, according to Gerald Baugh, the city's senior project manager and the lone city employee on the eight-member baseball committee.

"We are in a situation where there are not enough facilities for young people to play sports," he says.

Fred Herrmann pointed out at the March meeting in Vancouver that Miles Field hosts 125-150 youth games each year. He and his son have joined with Vancouver-area youth coaches to form the Columbia Sports Facilities Committee -- a group addressing crowding on the region's youth sports fields.

That congestion explains much of Herrmann's motivation for moving the team north.

Vancouver's population and economy are growing rapidly, according to Baugh. The city boasts about 135,000 residents, and around 300,000 people live in Clark County.

Medford's population is about 57,600, while Jackson County's is about 169,300; with the 73,000 residents of Josephine County thrown in, the team's fan base totals only 242,300 people.

Combs says more people should translate into greater financial success for the team in Vancouver.

"It looks to me that the economics of these things revolve strictly around demographics," he says. "It just doesn't seem any harder than that. If you have so many people, so many of them will come to a ball game."

Fred Herrmann told the committee that he hopes for an average attendance of about 4,000 if the team moves, but that the team can survive on as few as 2,000 fans a night. The team averaged 2,021 fans a game last season in Medford.

The move has the blessing of the Northwest League. League president Bob Richmond was at the first meeting in Vancouver, as were two other owners -- Jack Cain of the Portland Rockies and Jerry Walker of Salem-Keizer. All three expressed support for the move. Walker and Cain moved their teams from small markets in Bend and Bellingham to bigger cities and experienced dramatic rises in attendance.

"We wish we had more people there, frankly," Richmond says of Medford. "It's real tough to stay in the black in this day and age."

However, Richmond did say that the eight Northwest League teams in Oregon, Washington and Idaho "are all breaking even or making money."

The Timberjacks annually contribute about $2.2 million to Southern Oregon's economy, according to a 1995 report put together by Miller's group under the direction of Southern Oregon University business professor John Laughlin. The study says that nearly three-fourths of that is "hard money," dollars that would not be replaced in the local economy.

But more than dollars and cents, Southern Oregon leaders say the team boosts community spirit and provides inexpensive entertainment.

"The threat of them leaving is a distressing thing," says Medford Mayor Jerry Lausmann. "(Pro baseball) rounds out the sports scene in Medford, and I'd really hate to see them go."

The potential departure of the only pro sports team for about 150 miles in any direction has been met with disappointment but not surprise by fans.

"We haven't got a lot of recreation here," says Medford's Eileen Sowell, watching a high school game from the same seats for which she holds Timberjacks' season tickets. "If they take this away from us, then what do we do?"

Holding a homemade scorecard as the high school game begins, 71-year-old John Mast says he hopes there's always a pro team in Medford. Does it matter if it's the Timberjacks?

"Not really, especially now that they've indicated a preference to go somewhere else," says Mast, who taught at Medford High for 20 years before retiring in 1976. "I suppose it's a business decision, but I don't have to like it."

Carl Sieg, president of the Medford Baseball Booster Club, says the group's members were initially frustrated over the news but have accepted it. There's been no organized effort to keep the Timberjacks in Medford because most fans saw it coming and believe another team will come in.

"Most people do understand that Fred and the other owners are going to want to go to a big market," he says. "I still see a lot of support for Fred and the Timberjacks.