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In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and longtime Mexican American, the most memorable highlight of the World Series didn't happen during the tense final game on Saturday, when her team executed one dramatic comeback act after another before prevailing in overtime over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It happened in the previous game, when two second-tier players, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, executed a electrifying, game-winning sequence that simultaneously upended numerous harmful misconceptions touted about Latinos in recent years.

The play in itself was breathtaking: Hernández charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he at first misjudged in the stadium lights, then threw it to the infield to secure another, game-winning play. the second baseman, at second base, caught the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This wasn't merely a great athletic achievement, possibly the key turn in the series in the Dodgers' favor after appearing for most of the games like the weaker team. To her, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a badly needed uplift for Latinos and for the city after months of immigration raids, security forces monitoring the neighborhoods, and a constant drumbeat of criticism from official sources.

"Kike and Miggy presented this alternative story," explained Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos showing an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of masculinity. They're bombastic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and pursued. It is so easy to be disheartened right now."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a Dodgers supporter these days – for Molina or for the many of other fans who attend faithfully to matches and fill up as many as half of the venue's 50,000 seats per game.

A Mixed Connection with the Organization

When aggressive immigration raids began in Los Angeles in June, and military troops were deployed into the area to respond to resulting demonstrations, two of the city's soccer clubs promptly released statements of support with affected communities – while the Dodgers.

Management stated the organization want to steer clear of political issues – a stance colored, perhaps, by the fact that a significant minority of the supporters, including some Hispanic fans, are followers of certain political figures. After significant public pressure, the team later committed $one million in aid for individuals personally affected by the raids but issued no official condemnation of the administration.

White House Visit and Past Legacy

Months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in agreeing to an invitation to mark their previous championship win at the White House – a move that sports columnists labeled as "disappointing … spineless … and hypocritical", given the team's boast in having been the pioneering major league team to break the color barrier in the 1940s and the regular invocations of that legacy and the principles it embodies by officials and current and former players. Several team members such as the coach had expressed unwillingness to go to the White House during the initial period but either reconsidered or gave in to demands from team management.

Business Control and Supporter Dilemmas

A further complication for fans is that the Dodgers are owned by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own published balance sheets, include a share in a detention corporation that operates detention facilities. The group's executives has stated repeatedly that it wants to stay out of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own form of acquiescence to current agendas.

These factors contribute to considerable mixed feelings among Latino fans in particular – sentiments that emerged even in the excitement of this year's hard-fought World Series victory and the following outpouring of team pride across the city.

"Can one to support the Dodgers?" area writer one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful article ruminating on "Dodger blue in our blood, but doubt in our hearts". Galindo couldn't ultimately bring himself to view the World Series, but he still felt deeply, to the point that he believed his personal boycott must have given the squad the luck it needed to win.

Distinguishing the Team from the Owners

Numerous fans who share similar reservations seem to have decided that they can continue to support the team and its roster of international players, including the Japanese superstar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's business overlords. At no place was this more evident than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the packed audience cheered in approval of the manager and his players but booed the executive and the chief executive of the ownership group.

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

Past Background and Community Effect

The issue, however, goes further than only the organization's present proprietors. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the late 1950s required the city razing three low-income Latino communities on a elevated area overlooking downtown and then selling the land to the team for a fraction of its market value. A track on a mid-2000s record that documents the events has an impoverished worker at the venue stating that the house he forfeited to removal is now third base.

A prominent commentator, perhaps the region's most influential Mexican American writer and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the long, problematic dynamic between the franchise and its audience. He calls the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an undue, even unhealthy devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for decades.

"They've acted around Hispanic followers while picking their pockets with the other hand for so long because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer wrote over the warmer months, when calls to avoid the organization over its absence of reaction to the enforcement actions were upended by the awkward fact that attendance at home games remained steady, even at the peak of the protests when downtown LA was under to a evening curfew.

International Players and Community Bonds

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