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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable highlight of the World Series didn't occur during the tense final game on Saturday, when her squad pulled off one death-defying comeback act after another and then prevailing in extra innings against the opposing team.

It happened a game earlier, when two second-tier athletes, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, executed a electrifying, decisive play that at the same time challenged many negative stereotypes promoted about Latinos in recent years.

The moment in itself was stunning: Hernández raced in from left field to catch a ball he initially lost in the bright lights, then threw it to the infield to secure another, game-winning out. the second baseman, at second base, received the ball moments before a opposing player barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This wasn't merely a remarkable athletic achievement, possibly the key turn in the series in the team's direction after appearing for most of the games like the underdog side. To her, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a much-required morale boost for Latinos and for the city after a period of enforcement actions, troops monitoring the streets, and a constant stream of criticism from national leaders.

"The players put forth this alternative story," explained Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an infectious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a different kind of confidence. They are energetic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a contrast with what we see on the news – raids, Latinos thrown to the ground and chased down. It is so easy to be disheartened right now."

However, it's entirely simple to be a Dodgers supporter these days – for Molina or for the legions of other fans who show up faithfully to home games and fill up as many as half of the venue's fifty thousand seats per game.

A Complicated Relationship with the Organization

When aggressive immigration raids began in the city in June, and national guard units were deployed into the area to respond to ensuing protests, two of the city's soccer teams quickly released statements of support with affected communities – while the baseball team.

The team president has said the organization prefer to stay away of political issues – a stance colored, possibly, by the fact that a sizable portion of the fans, even Latinos, are supporters of certain leaders. After significant public pressure, the team subsequently pledged $one million in support for families personally impacted by the operations but made no official criticism of the administration.

Official Event and Past Legacy

Three months before, the team did not delay in agreeing to an offer to mark their previous World Series win at the official residence – a move that local columnists described as "disappointing … weak … and contradictory", given the team's boast in having been the first professional team to break the color barrier in the mid-20th century and the regular invocations of that history and the principles it represents by officials and current and former players. Several players such as the coach had expressed unwillingness to go to the event during the first term but then changed their minds or gave in to demands from team management.

Corporate Control and Supporter Conflicts

A further issue for supporters is that the team are controlled by a large investment group, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, as per media reports and its own released balance sheets, involve a stake in a private prison company that runs enforcement centers. The group's executives has said repeatedly that it wants to stay out of politics, but its detractors say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of compliance to certain policies.

All of that contribute to considerable conflicted emotions among Hispanic fans in especial – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this season's hard-fought World Series triumph and the ensuing explosion of Dodgers support across Los Angeles.

"Can one to root for the team?" area writer one observer reflected at the start of the playoffs in an thoughtful essay pondering on "team loyalty in our blood, but uncertainty in our minds". He couldn't finally bring himself to view the championship, but he still cared strongly, to the extent that he decided his personal boycott must have given the team the luck it needed to win.

Separating the Players from the Management

Many fans who share similar reservations seem to have concluded that they can keep to support the team and its lineup of international stars, featuring the Asian superstar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate overlords. At no place was this more clear than at the championship parade at the home venue on Monday, when the packed audience roared in support of the manager and his players but booed the team president and the chief executive of the investors.

"The executives in formal attire do not get to take our boys in blue from us," Molina said. "We've been with the team longer than they have."

Historical Background and Neighborhood Effect

The issue, though, goes further than just the organization's present proprietors. The deal that brought the former franchise to Los Angeles in the late 1950s required the city razing three low-income Hispanic neighborhoods on a elevated area overlooking downtown and then selling the land to the organization for a fraction of its market value. A song on a mid-2000s album that documents the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the house he lost to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps the region's most widely followed Mexican American writer and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the long, problematic dynamic between the franchise and its fanbase. He calls the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy following by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its supporters for decades.

"They've put one arm around Hispanic followers while profiting from them with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano noted over the warmer months, when calls to boycott the organization over its lack of reaction to the raids were upended by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the height of the protests when the city center was subject to a nightly curfew.

International Stars and Fan Connections

Separating the squad from its business leadership is not a simple matter, {