KANSAS CITY, Missouri (Ticker) -- The Kansas City Royals are back in the market for a new owner after a $75 million bid by Miles Prentice was rejected Wednesday by Major League Baseball.

The rejection was expected after owners failed to act on the bid at their September meetings in Cooperstown, New York. Voting 29-1 against Prentice, Commissioner Bud Selig said the Royals should pursue "additional alternatives."

Baseball balked at the bid by Prentice, a New York lawyer, due to the large number of members in his ownership group.

The Royals held a news conference Wednesday night to announce that the bid had been turned down.

"What I am so frustrated about is that it took so long to get to this point," said Joe McGuff, a member of the Royals' board of directors.

The Royals plan to reopen the sales process that will be managed by J.P. Morgan, a New York investment firm. Among the possible suitors are Royals chairman of the board David Glass.

The Royals' board of directors approved the sale of the team to a group headed by Prentice in September 1998.

More than 75 percent of Prentice's group is comprosed of Kansas City residents. The group included UMB Financial Corp. chairman R. Crosby Kemper, Negro League's Baseball Museum chairman Buck O'Neil, professional golfer Tom Watson, mortgage banker James B. Nutter Jr. and Nancy Kauffman, daughter-in-law of late owner Ewing Kauffman.

The Royals have been without an owner since Ewing Kauffman died in 1993. The succession plan calls for a new owner to be found who will keep the team in Kansas City. When that period expires on January 1, 2002, the team will be sold to the highest bidder.