Selig can see Montreal bid to return to majors

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) Baseball Commissioner Bud Selig can envision Montreal making a bid to return to the major leagues.

The Expos joined the National League for the 1969 season and remained in the big leagues through 2004 before moving to Washington and becoming the Nationals.

While the Expos failed to draw 1 million spectators to Olympic Stadium in any of their final seven seasons, a total of 96,350 fans attended a pair of exhibition games there in March between the New York Mets and Toronto Blue Jays.

''I think they would be an excellent candidate in the future. No question about it. That was very impressive,'' Selig said Tuesday during a question-and-answer session with the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

''They have much work to be done,'' he said. ''There's certainly in my case no hard or angry feeling toward Montreal. We tried to keep a team there. It's a long story now. But I thought that was marvelous.''