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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable moment of the World Series did not occur during the tense finale last Saturday, when her squad pulled off one death-defying escape feat after another and then winning in extra innings over the opposing team.

It happened in the previous game, when two supporting athletes, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, executed a thrilling, game-winning play that simultaneously upended numerous negative stereotypes promoted about Hispanic people in the past years.

The play in itself was stunning: the outfielder raced in from left field to catch a ball he at first misjudged in the bright lights, then threw it to the infield to secure another, decisive play. the second baseman, positioned nearby, caught the ball just a split second before a runner barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This wasn't merely a remarkable athletic moment, perhaps the decisive shift in the series in the Dodgers' favor after looking for most of the series like the underdog side. For Molina, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a badly needed morale boost for Latinos and for the city after a period of immigration raids, troops monitoring the neighborhoods, and a constant stream of criticism from national leaders.

"Kike and Miggy put forth this alternative story," explained Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, being key figures on the team, having a different kind of confidence. They're bombastic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a juxtaposition with what we observe on the news – raids, Latinos detained and pursued. It is so easy to be demoralized these days."

However, it's entirely straightforward to be a team supporter these days – for Molina or for the many of other Latinos who attend regularly to home games and occupy as many as half of the venue's 50,000 seats per game.

A Mixed Connection with the Organization

When aggressive enforcement operations started in the city in June, and national guard troops were sent into the city to respond to resulting protests, two of the city's soccer teams promptly released statements of support with immigrant families – but not the Dodgers.

Management stated the organization want to steer clear of political issues – a stance influenced, perhaps, by the fact that a significant minority of the supporters, even Latinos, are supporters of current leaders. After considerable public pressure, the team later pledged $1m in aid for families personally impacted by the raids but made no official condemnation of the government.

Official Visit and Historical Heritage

Three months before, the team did not hesitate in accepting an invitation to celebrate their previous World Series win at the White House – a move that sports columnists described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", considering the team's pride in having been the first professional team to break the racial segregation in the 1940s and the frequent invocations of that history and the values it embodies by officials and present and past players. A number of team members including the manager had expressed unwillingness to travel to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or gave in to demands from the organization.

Corporate Ownership and Supporter Dilemmas

A further issue for fans is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own released financial documents, involve a share in a detention company that runs detention facilities. Guggenheim's leadership has stated many times that it wants to remain neutral of political matters, but its detractors say the silence – and the financial stake – are their own form of compliance to certain policies.

All of that contribute to considerable conflicted emotions among Latino supporters in especial – feelings that emerged even in the excitement of this year's hard-won World Series victory and the ensuing explosion of team pride across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to root for the Dodgers?" local writer Erick Galindo reflected at the beginning of the playoffs in an elegant essay pondering on "team loyalty in our veins, but uncertainty in our minds". Galindo was unable to ultimately bring himself to view the World Series, but he still cared strongly, to the point that he believed his personal boycott must have given the squad the luck it required to win.

Separating the Players from the Management

Numerous fans who share similar reservations seem to have decided that they can keep to support the players and its lineup of international stars, featuring the Japanese superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the organization's corporate overlords. Nowhere was this more clear than at the championship parade at the home venue on the following day, when the packed audience roared in approval of the coach and his athletes but jeered the team president and the top official of the investors.

"These men in suits do not get to take our players from us," Molina said. "We've been with the Dodgers for more time than they have."

Past Context and Neighborhood Impact

The issue, however, goes further than only the team's present owners. The agreement that brought the former franchise to Los Angeles in the late 1950s involved the city razing three working-class Latino communities on a elevated area above the city center and then selling the property to the team for a fraction of its actual worth. A song on a 2005 album that documents the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue stating that the home he forfeited to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps the region's most influential Latino columnist and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic dynamic between the team and its audience. He describes the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even unhealthy following by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for years.

"They have acted around Hispanic followers while picking their pockets with the other for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano wrote over the summer, when demands to avoid the organization over its absence of response to the raids were contradicted by the uncomfortable fact that attendance at home games remained steady, even at the peak of the protests when the city center was under to a evening curfew.

International Players and Community Bonds

Distinguishing the team from its corporate owners is not a easy task, {