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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series did not happen during the nail-biting final game on Saturday, when her team pulled off one death-defying comeback act after another and then prevailing in overtime over the opposing team.

It came a game earlier, when two supporting players, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning play that simultaneously challenged numerous negative misconceptions promoted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The moment itself was stunning: the outfielder charged in from the outfield to snag a ball he at first lost in the stadium lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, decisive play. Rojas, positioned nearby, caught the ball just a split second before a runner barreled into him, sending him backwards.

This wasn't just a great athletic achievement, perhaps the key shift in momentum in the team's favor after appearing for much of the series like the weaker side. To her, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for the community and for Los Angeles after months of enforcement actions, troops monitoring the streets, and a constant stream of criticism from national leaders.

"The players presented this alternative story," explained the professor. "Everyone witnessed Latinos showing an infectious pride and joy in what they do, being key figures on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of confidence. They are energetic, they're yelling, they're taking off their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos thrown to the ground and pursued. It's so easy to be disheartened these days."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a team fan nowadays – for Molina or for the many of other fans who attend regularly to matches and occupy as many as half of the venue's 50,000 seats per game.

The Complicated Connection with the Team

After aggressive immigration raids started in Los Angeles in June, and national guard units were sent into the area to react to ensuing protests, two of the local soccer teams quickly issued messages of solidarity with immigrant families – while the baseball team.

Management has said the Dodgers prefer to stay away of political issues – a view influenced, possibly, by the fact that a sizable minority of the supporters, including Latinos, are supporters of current political figures. After considerable external demands, the organization later committed $1m in aid for families personally affected by the raids but issued no public criticism of the administration.

White House Visit and Past Legacy

Three months before, the organization did not hesitate in accepting an invitation to celebrate their 2024 championship win at the official residence – a decision that local writers labeled as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", given the team's pride in having been the first professional team to end the racial segregation in the 1940s and the regular references of that legacy and the values it embodies by executives and present and former players. A number of players such as the manager had expressed unwillingness to travel to the event during the initial period but either changed their minds or gave in to demands from team management.

Corporate Control and Fan Dilemmas

An additional complication for supporters is that the team are owned by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own released financial documents, include a share in a detention corporation that operates detention centers. The group's executives has stated many times that it aims to stay out of political matters, but its critics say the silence – and the financial stake – are their own form of acquiescence to current policies.

These factors add up to considerable mixed feelings among Latino fans in particular – feelings that emerged even in the euphoria of this year's hard-fought championship triumph and the ensuing outpouring of Dodgers pride across the city.

"Is it okay to support the Dodgers?" local writer Erick Galindo reflected at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful article pondering on "Dodger blue in our blood, but uncertainty in our hearts". He was unable to finally bring himself to watch the championship, but he still felt strongly, to the point that he decided his personal boycott must have brought the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Distinguishing the Players from the Owners

Many supporters who share Galindo's reservations seem to have concluded that they can keep to support the team and its roster of international players, featuring the Asian megastar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's corporate leadership. At no place was this more clear than at the championship parade at the home venue on Monday, when the capacity crowd roared in approval of the coach and his players but jeered the executive and the top official of the ownership group.

"The executives in suits do not get to claim our boys in blue from us," Molina said. "We have been with the team for more time than they have."

Past Context and Community Impact

The problem, however, runs deeper than just the team's present owners. The deal that brought the former franchise to Los Angeles in the late 1950s required the city razing three low-income Latino neighborhoods on a hill overlooking downtown and then transferring the property to the team for a small part of its market value. A song on a 2005 album that documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the stadium stating that the house he forfeited to removal is now third base.

A prominent commentator, possibly the region's most widely followed Latino writer and media personality, sees a darker side to the long, dysfunctional relationship between the team and its fanbase. He calls the team the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a corporate entity with an excessive, even unhealthy devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its fans for years.

"They have acted around Hispanic fans while profiting from them with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano noted over the warmer months, when demands to boycott the organization over its lack of reaction to the raids were upended by the uncomfortable reality that attendance at matches did not dip, even at the height of the protests when the city center was subject to a evening curfew.

Global Players and Community Bonds

Distinguishing the squad from its business leadership is not a easy matter, {