ST. PAUL, Minn. -- Attorney General Mike Hatch used baseball commissioner Bud Selig's past comments against him Tuesday in a brief urging the Minnesota Court of Appeals to uphold an injunction requiring the Twins to play next season.

Hatch is aiding the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commission in defending the order. He contends that the team is a public interest that brings intangible benefits to the community.

Lawyers for the Twins and Major League Baseball have argued that the district judge's injunction improperly interferes with a private business and that any breach of the lease could be satisfied with monetary damages.

They want the appeals court to lift the order, which is a roadblock to baseball's plan to cut teams before spring training. A hearing on the appeal is set for Dec. 27.

But Hatch quoted Selig's past testimony before Congress when the commissioner recounted his efforts to keep the Milwaukee Braves from relocating. Selig was co-chairman of the local campaign trying to stop the team from moving.

"I was deeply offended and personally affected by what I consider to be a flagrant breach of that special covenant baseball had with its fans when the Braves were allowed to move from Milwaukee to Atlanta in 1966," Selig said before Congress in 1992.

The Braves played the 1965 season under an injunction requiring them to stay for that year.

The Facilities Commission has until Thursday to file its brief in the case, which would become moot if contraction is delayed a year. The Twins lease runs out after next season. Baseball lawyers have filed their papers already.

In outlining his brief to reporters, Hatch said this case differs from typical lease disputes.

"Even by Mr. Selig's own words and certainly by his own actions in 1966, the relationship between a sports team and a community is substantially more than that of a commercial landlord-tenant," Hatch said.