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In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable highlight of the World Series did not occur during the nail-biting finale on Saturday, when her squad executed multiple death-defying comeback act after another and then winning in overtime against the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came in the previous game, when two second-tier athletes, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, executed a thrilling, decisive play that at the same time upended numerous negative misconceptions promoted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The moment in itself was stunning: Hernández charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he at first misjudged in the bright lights, then threw it to second base to secure another, decisive play. Rojas, at second base, caught the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, knocking him backwards.

This was not just a remarkable sporting achievement, perhaps the key turn in momentum in the team's direction after looking for much of the series like the underdog side. For Molina, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a badly needed uplift for the community and for Los Angeles after a period of immigration raids, security forces monitoring the neighborhoods, and a steady drumbeat of negativity from official sources.

"Kike and Miggy presented this counter-narrative," said Molina. "Everyone witnessed Latinos displaying an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of confidence. They're bombastic, they're cheering, they're removing 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 exactly simple to be a team supporter these days – for her or for the legions of other fans who show up faithfully to home games and fill up as many as 50% of the venue's fifty thousand seats each time.

A Complicated Relationship with the Team

When intensified immigration raids started in the city in June, and national guard troops were sent into the area to react to ensuing protests, two of the city's sports clubs promptly issued statements of solidarity with immigrant families – while the Dodgers.

Management stated the Dodgers prefer to stay away of politics – a stance influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a significant minority of the fans, even some Hispanic fans, are followers of certain political figures. After considerable public pressure, the organization subsequently committed $one million in aid for individuals directly impacted by the operations but issued no public condemnation of the government.

Official Event and Past Legacy

Months before, the organization did not hesitate in agreeing to an invitation to mark their previous championship victory at the official residence – a decision that local columnists described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", given the team's pride in having been the first professional franchise to break the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the regular invocations of that legacy and the values it represents by executives and present and past athletes. Several players such as the coach had expressed reluctance to go to the event during the initial period but either changed their minds or gave in to demands from the organization.

Corporate Ownership and Fan Conflicts

A further issue for supporters is that the Dodgers are owned by a corporate behemoth, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own released balance sheets, include a stake in a private prison company that operates enforcement facilities. Guggenheim's leadership has stated repeatedly that it aims to remain neutral of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own form of acquiescence to certain agendas.

These factors add up to significant conflicted emotions among Latino supporters in particular – sentiments that emerged even in the euphoria of this year's hard-won championship triumph and the following explosion of team pride across Los Angeles.

"Can one to root for the team?" area writer one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an elegant article ruminating on "team loyalty in our veins, but doubt in our hearts". Galindo was unable to ultimately bring himself to watch the World Series, but he still cared deeply, to the extent that he decided his personal protest must have given the squad the fortune it required to win.

Separating the Team from the Management

Numerous supporters who share similar misgivings seem to have decided that they can keep to back the team and its lineup of international stars, including the Japanese superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's business leadership. At no place was this more clear than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the capacity crowd roared in support of the manager and his players but booed the team president and the chief executive of the ownership group.

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

Past Background and Community Impact

The issue, however, runs deeper than only the organization's current proprietors. The agreement that moved the former franchise to the city in the late 1950s involved the municipality demolishing three low-income Latino neighborhoods on a hill above downtown and then selling the property to the organization for a small part of its market value. A track on a 2005 record that chronicles the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue revealing that the home he lost to removal is now a part of the field.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps the region's most widely followed Mexican American columnist and media personality, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its audience. He calls the team the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an undue, even harmful devotion by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for decades.

"They've put one arm around Latino fans while profiting from them with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer wrote over the warmer months, when demands to avoid the team over its absence of reaction to the raids were contradicted by the uncomfortable fact that attendance at matches remained steady, even at the height of the demonstrations when downtown LA was subject to a evening curfew.

Global Players and Fan Connections

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