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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and longtime Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series did not happen during the tense finale on Saturday, when her team executed multiple death-defying escape act after another and then prevailing in extra innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came in the previous game, when two second-tier players, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a thrilling, decisive sequence that at the same time challenged numerous harmful misconceptions touted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The play in itself was stunning: Hernández charged in from left field to catch a ball he at first misjudged in the stadium lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, decisive play. Rojas, positioned nearby, received the ball just a split second before a runner collided with him, knocking him backwards.

This wasn't just a great sporting moment, perhaps the decisive shift in momentum in the Dodgers' favor after looking for much of the games like the underdog side. To her, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed uplift for Latinos and for Los Angeles after months of immigration raids, troops patrolling the streets, and a steady drumbeat of negativity from national leaders.

"The players presented this counter-narrative," explained Molina. "The world witnessed Latinos showing an infectious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a different kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're yelling, they're taking off their shirts."

"It was such a contrast with what we observe on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos thrown to the ground and chased down. It's so simple to be demoralized right now."

Not that 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 venue's 50,000 spots per game.

A Mixed Connection with the Team

When aggressive immigration raids started in the city in early June, and military troops were deployed into the area to respond to ensuing demonstrations, two of the local sports teams quickly released statements of solidarity with affected communities – while the baseball team.

Management has said the organization want to stay away of politics – a view colored, possibly, by the reality that a sizable minority of the fans, even Latinos, are supporters of current leaders. Under considerable external demands, the team subsequently committed $1m in aid for individuals directly affected by the raids but made no official criticism of the government.

Official Event and Past Heritage

Three months earlier, the team did not hesitate in accepting an offer to mark their previous championship win at the White House – a decision that sports writers described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", considering the Dodgers' boast in having been the pioneering major league team to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the regular invocations of that history and the principles it represents by officials and current and former players. A number of players such as the coach had voiced reluctance to go to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or succumbed to pressure from the organization.

Business Ownership and Supporter Dilemmas

A further complication for supporters is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, as per sources and its own published financial documents, include a share in a private prison corporation that runs detention facilities. Guggenheim's executives has said repeatedly that it aims to remain neutral of politics, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own form of compliance to current agendas.

All of that add up to significant conflicted emotions among Hispanic supporters in especial – feelings that emerged even in the euphoria of this year's hard-fought World Series triumph and the following explosion of team pride across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to support the Dodgers?" local writer one observer agonized at the start of the playoffs in an thoughtful essay ruminating on "Dodger blue in our blood, but doubt in our hearts". He was unable to finally bring himself to watch the championship, but he still felt deeply, to the extent that he believed his personal boycott must have brought the squad the luck it needed to succeed.

Distinguishing the Players from the Owners

Numerous fans who have similar reservations appear to have concluded that they can keep to back the team and its lineup of global stars, including the Asian megastar a key player, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate leadership. At no place was this more clear than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the packed audience roared in approval of the coach and his players but jeered the team president and the top official of the ownership group.

"These men in suits don't get to take our boys in blue from us," the fan said. "We've been with the team for more time than they have."

Past Background and Community Impact

The issue, however, runs deeper than just the team's present owners. The deal that moved the former franchise to Los Angeles in the late 1950s required the city demolishing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill overlooking downtown and then selling the land to the organization for a small part of its actual worth. A track on a 2005 record that documents the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue revealing that the house he forfeited to removal is now third base.

A prominent commentator, perhaps southern California most widely followed Mexican American writer and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, dysfunctional dynamic between the team and its fanbase. He calls the team the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an undue, even harmful devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been exploiting its supporters for decades.

"They have acted around Latino followers while picking their pockets with the other for so much time because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano wrote over the summer, when calls to boycott the organization over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were upended by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at home games remained steady, even at the height of the protests when the city center was subject to a nightly curfew.

Global Players and Fan Bonds

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