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In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable moment of the World Series didn't occur during the nail-biting finale on Saturday, when her team pulled off one dramatic comeback feat after another and then winning in overtime against the opposing team.

It came in the previous game, when two supporting players, the Puerto Rican player and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a electrifying, decisive play that simultaneously upended many harmful stereotypes promoted about Hispanic people in the past decades.

The play itself was breathtaking: Hernández charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then threw it to second base to record another, decisive play. Rojas, positioned nearby, received the ball moments before a opposing player barreled into him, knocking him backwards.

This wasn't just a great athletic moment, perhaps the key turn in momentum in the team's direction after appearing for much of the series like the weaker side. To her, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a badly needed uplift for the community and for Los Angeles after a period of enforcement actions, troops patrolling the neighborhoods, and a constant drumbeat of negativity from national leaders.

"Kike and Miggy presented this counter-narrative," said Molina. "Everyone witnessed Latinos showing an contagious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of masculinity. They're energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a contrast with what we observe on the news – raids, Latinos thrown to the ground and pursued. It is so simple to be demoralized these days."

However, it's exactly straightforward to be a team fan these days – for her or for the legions of other Latinos who show up regularly to matches and fill up as many as half of the stadium's fifty thousand spots each time.

A Mixed Relationship with the Team

When intensified enforcement operations began in the city in June, and military units were deployed into the area to react to resulting demonstrations, two of the local soccer teams promptly released messages of solidarity with immigrant families – but not the baseball team.

Management has said the Dodgers want to stay away of politics – a view colored, possibly, by the reality that a significant portion of the fans, even Latinos, are followers of current leaders. Under considerable public pressure, the organization later pledged $one million in support for individuals directly impacted by the raids but made no public condemnation of the government.

Official Event and Past Legacy

Three months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in accepting an invitation to celebrate their previous World Series win at the official residence – a move that sports writers described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", considering the team's pride in having been the pioneering professional franchise to end the color barrier in the mid-20th century and the regular invocations of that legacy and the values it represents by officials and current and former players. A number of team members including the coach had expressed unwillingness to go to the White House during the first term but either changed their minds or succumbed to demands from the organization.

Business Ownership and Fan Dilemmas

An additional issue for supporters is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, as per sources and its own released balance sheets, include a stake in a private prison company that runs detention centers. The group's leadership has said many times that it aims to stay out of politics, but its detractors say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to current policies.

These factors add up to considerable mixed feelings among Hispanic fans in particular – sentiments that emerged even in the excitement of this season's hard-fought World Series victory and the ensuing explosion of Dodgers support across the city.

"Can one to root for the team?" area writer one observer reflected at the start of the postseason in an elegant essay pondering on "team loyalty in our veins, but doubt in our hearts". He couldn't ultimately bring himself to view the championship, but he still cared strongly, to the extent that he decided his one-man boycott must have brought the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Distinguishing the Team from the Owners

Numerous supporters who have Galindo's misgivings seem to have concluded that they can keep to support the team and its lineup of global players, featuring the Japanese megastar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate overlords. Nowhere was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the packed audience roared in support of the coach and his players but jeered the team president and the chief executive of the investors.

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

Historical Context and Community Effect

The problem, however, goes further than only the organization's present owners. The agreement that moved the former franchise to Los Angeles in the 1950s required the city razing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a elevated area above the city center and then transferring the land to the team for a small part of its market value. A track on a 2005 record that documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the venue stating that the house he forfeited to removal is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most widely followed Mexican American writer and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its fanbase. He calls the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for years.

"They have acted around Latino fans while picking their pockets with the other for so much time because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano noted over the warmer months, when demands to avoid the team over its lack of response to the raids were upended by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the height of the demonstrations when the city center was under to a evening curfew.

Global Players and Community Connections

Separating the squad from its corporate owners is not a easy task, {