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In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series did not occur during the tense finale on Saturday, when her squad executed one dramatic escape act after another and then prevailing in extra innings against the opposing team.

It came a game earlier, when two second-tier athletes, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, executed a electrifying, decisive sequence that simultaneously challenged numerous negative stereotypes touted about Hispanic people in recent years.

The moment itself was breathtaking: Hernández charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he initially lost in the stadium lights, then fired it to second base to secure another, game-winning out. Rojas, at second base, caught the ball just a split second before a runner barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This wasn't just a remarkable sporting moment, possibly the decisive turn in momentum in the team's direction after appearing for much of the games like the weaker team. For Molina, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a badly needed uplift for Latinos and for the city after a period of enforcement actions, troops patrolling the neighborhoods, and a steady stream of negativity from official sources.

"Kike and Miggy put forth this counter-narrative," explained the professor. "Everyone witnessed Latinos displaying an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of masculinity. They are bombastic, they're cheering, they're taking off their shirts."

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

Not that it's entirely simple to be a team fan nowadays – for her or for the legions of other Latinos who attend faithfully to home games and fill up as many as half of the stadium's fifty thousand seats per game.

The Mixed Relationship with the Team

After intensified immigration raids started in Los Angeles in early June, and military troops were deployed into the city to react to resulting protests, two of the city's soccer clubs promptly released statements of solidarity with immigrant families – but not the Dodgers.

The team president stated the Dodgers prefer to steer clear of political issues – a view influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a sizable minority of the supporters, even some Hispanic fans, are supporters of certain political figures. After considerable external demands, the team later committed $one million in aid for families directly affected by the operations but issued no official condemnation of the administration.

Official Visit and Past Heritage

Three months before, the organization did not delay in accepting an offer to celebrate their previous championship win at the official residence – a decision that local writers labeled as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", given the team's boast in having been the first professional team to end the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the frequent references of that history and the values it represents by officials and current and past players. Several team members such as the coach had voiced reluctance to travel to the event during the first term but either changed their minds or succumbed to demands from team management.

Business Control and Fan Conflicts

A further issue for supporters is that the team are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, as per media reports and its own published balance sheets, involve a stake in a detention company that operates enforcement facilities. The group's leadership has stated repeatedly that it wants to stay out of politics, but its critics say the inaction – and the investment – are their own form of acquiescence to certain agendas.

These factors add up to significant conflicted emotions among Hispanic fans in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this season's hard-won World Series triumph and the ensuing explosion of Dodgers pride across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to root for the team?" area columnist one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful essay pondering on "team loyalty in our veins, but doubt in our minds". He was unable to ultimately bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt strongly, to the extent that he believed his personal boycott must have brought the team the fortune it needed to win.

Separating the Players from the Management

Numerous fans who have Galindo's reservations seem to have decided that they can continue to back the players and its roster of global players, including the Japanese superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the organization's business leadership. Nowhere was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the packed audience cheered in approval of the manager and his players but jeered the executive and the chief executive of the investors.

"The executives in suits don't get to claim our players from us," Molina said. "We have been with the team longer than they have."

Past Background and Neighborhood Impact

The problem, however, runs deeper than only the team's current proprietors. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in the late 1950s involved the municipality razing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a elevated area above downtown and then selling the property to the team for a fraction of its actual worth. A track on a mid-2000s album that chronicles the story has an low-income worker at the stadium revealing that the home he forfeited to removal is now a part of the field.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most influential Latino columnist and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, problematic dynamic between the team and its fanbase. He describes the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even unhealthy devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for years.

"They have acted around Latino followers while picking their pockets with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano wrote over the warmer months, when calls to boycott the organization over its absence of reaction to the raids were contradicted by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the peak of the protests when the city center was subject to a evening restriction.

Global Players and Fan Bonds

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