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For Natalia Molina and longtime Mexican American, the crowning moment of the baseball championship didn't happen during the tense final game last Saturday, when her squad pulled off one death-defying comeback act after another and then prevailing in overtime over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came in the previous game, when two supporting players, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, executed a thrilling, game-winning sequence that simultaneously challenged numerous negative stereotypes promoted about Latinos in the past decades.

The play in itself was stunning: Hernández raced in from the outfield to snag a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then threw it to second base to secure another, decisive play. the second baseman, at second base, received the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, sending him backwards.

This was not just a great athletic moment, possibly the key shift in the series in the team's direction after appearing for much of the series like the underdog team. For Molina, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a much-required morale boost for Latinos and for Los Angeles after a period of enforcement actions, security forces patrolling the streets, and a steady stream of negativity from national leaders.

"The players put forth this counter-narrative," explained Molina. "The world witnessed Latinos displaying an contagious pride and joy in what they do, being key figures on the team, exhibiting a different kind of masculinity. They are energetic, they're yelling, they're taking off their shirts."

"This represented such a juxtaposition with what we observe on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and chased down. It's so simple 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 show up regularly to matches and fill up as many as 50% of the stadium's 50,000 seats each time.

A Complicated Relationship with the Organization

When aggressive enforcement operations started in the city in June, and military units were sent into the city to respond to resulting demonstrations, two of the city's soccer clubs promptly issued messages of support with immigrant families – but not the baseball team.

Management stated the organization want to stay away of political issues – a view colored, possibly, by the fact that a significant portion of the supporters, even Latinos, are supporters of certain leaders. After significant public pressure, the team later pledged $1m in aid for individuals directly affected by the raids but issued no public condemnation of the administration.

Official Visit and Past Heritage

Months before, the organization did not delay in agreeing to an offer to celebrate their previous championship win at the official residence – a decision that local writers described as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", given the team's pride in having been the pioneering professional franchise to break the color barrier in the mid-20th century and the regular references of that legacy and the principles it represents by executives and current and former players. A number of players including the manager had voiced reluctance to travel to the event during the first term but then reconsidered or gave in to demands from team management.

Corporate Ownership and Fan Dilemmas

An additional issue for supporters is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, according to media reports and its own released financial documents, include a share in a detention corporation that operates detention facilities. Guggenheim's leadership has stated many times that it aims to stay out of politics, but its critics say the silence – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to current agendas.

These factors contribute to considerable conflicted emotions among Latino supporters in especial – feelings that emerged even in the excitement of this year's hard-fought championship victory and the following outpouring of team pride across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to root for the team?" area columnist one observer reflected at the beginning of the postseason in an elegant essay ruminating on "Dodger blue in our veins, but uncertainty in our minds". Galindo was unable to finally bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt deeply, to the extent that he believed his personal protest must have brought the team the fortune it required to win.

Distinguishing the Players from the Owners

Numerous supporters who share Galindo's misgivings appear to have decided that they can continue to back the team and its lineup of international players, including the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, while pouring scorn on the organization's corporate leadership. Nowhere was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the capacity crowd roared in support of the coach and his players but jeered the executive and the top official of the ownership group.

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

Historical Context and Neighborhood Effect

The issue, though, runs deeper than only the organization's present proprietors. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s involved the municipality demolishing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill above downtown and then selling the land to the organization for a small part of its market value. A song on a 2005 album that documents the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue stating that the house he forfeited to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most influential Latino writer and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, dysfunctional relationship between the franchise and its fanbase. He describes the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy following by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its supporters for years.

"They've acted around Latino fans while picking their pockets with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer wrote over the warmer months, when calls to avoid the organization over its lack of reaction to the enforcement actions were upended by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the peak of the protests when downtown LA was subject to a nightly restriction.

Global Players and Fan Bonds

Distinguishing the squad from its corporate owners is not a simple matter, {