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In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and longtime Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series did not occur during the nail-biting final game last Saturday, when her squad executed multiple dramatic escape act after another before prevailing in extra innings over the opposing team.

It happened in the previous game, when two supporting athletes, the Puerto Rican player and the Venezuelan infielder, executed a electrifying, decisive sequence that at the same time challenged numerous harmful stereotypes promoted about Latinos in recent decades.

The moment in itself was breathtaking: the outfielder charged in from left field to catch a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then fired it to the infield to record another, game-winning play. Rojas, positioned nearby, received the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This was not merely a great sporting moment, possibly the key shift in momentum in the Dodgers' favor after looking for most of the series like the underdog team. For Molina, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a much-required morale boost for the community and for the city after a period of immigration raids, troops patrolling the streets, and a constant stream of negativity from national leaders.

"The players presented this counter-narrative," explained the professor. "The world saw Latinos displaying an contagious pride and joy in what they do, acting as key figures on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of confidence. They are energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – raids, Latinos detained and chased down. It is so simple to be disheartened these days."

Not that it's exactly simple to be a team fan these days – for her or for the many of other Latinos who show up regularly to home games and fill up as many as 50% of the venue's 50,000 spots per game.

The Complicated Relationship with the Team

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

The team president has said the organization prefer to steer clear of politics – a stance influenced, perhaps, by the fact that a sizable minority of the supporters, including some Hispanic fans, are supporters of current political figures. After significant external demands, the organization later committed $one million in aid for individuals directly impacted by the operations but made no official criticism of the government.

Official Visit and Historical Heritage

Three months before, the team did not hesitate in agreeing to an offer to celebrate their previous championship win at the official residence – a decision that sports columnists described as "disappointing … weak … and contradictory", considering the Dodgers' boast in having been the pioneering professional franchise to end the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the frequent invocations of that history and the values it represents by executives and current and past players. A number of team members such as the manager had voiced unwillingness to travel to the White House during the first term but either reconsidered or succumbed to pressure from team management.

Business Control and Supporter Conflicts

An additional complication for fans is that the team are owned by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, according to sources and its own published balance sheets, include a stake in a detention company that operates enforcement centers. The group's executives has stated repeatedly that it aims to remain neutral of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the investment – are their own form of compliance to certain agendas.

All of that add up to significant conflicted emotions among Hispanic supporters in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this year's hard-won championship triumph and the following explosion of team support 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 "Dodger blue in our blood, but uncertainty in our hearts". Galindo couldn't ultimately bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt deeply, to the point that he decided his one-man protest must have given the squad the fortune it needed to win.

Distinguishing the Players from the Owners

Many supporters who have Galindo's misgivings appear to have decided that they can continue to support the players and its lineup of global stars, including the Japanese superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's corporate leadership. At no place was this more evident than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the capacity crowd roared in support of the coach and his players but booed the executive and the chief executive of the investors.

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

Past Context and Community Impact

The problem, however, goes further than just the organization's present proprietors. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s involved the city demolishing three low-income Hispanic neighborhoods on a elevated area above the city center and then selling the land to the team for a fraction of its actual worth. A track on a mid-2000s record that chronicles the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue stating that the home he lost to eviction is now a part of the field.

A prominent commentator, possibly the region's most widely followed Latino columnist and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, dysfunctional relationship between the franchise and its audience. He describes the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a business organization with an undue, even unhealthy devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for decades.

"They have put one arm around Hispanic 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 summer, when demands to avoid the organization over its lack of reaction to the raids were upended by the awkward fact that attendance at matches remained steady, even at the peak of the demonstrations when the city center was under to a evening restriction.

Global Players and Community Bonds

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