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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 happen during the nail-biting finale last Saturday, when her team executed one death-defying escape feat after another before prevailing in extra innings over the opposing team.

It happened a game earlier, when two supporting players, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning sequence that at the same time upended many harmful stereotypes touted about Hispanic people in recent years.

The moment in itself was stunning: the outfielder charged in from the outfield to catch a ball he initially lost in the bright lights, then fired it to the infield to secure another, decisive out. the second baseman, at second base, caught the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, sending him backwards.

This wasn't merely a remarkable sporting moment, perhaps the decisive turn in the series in the team's favor after appearing for much of the games like the weaker team. For Molina, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a badly needed morale boost for the community and for the city after months of immigration raids, security forces monitoring the neighborhoods, and a steady drumbeat of negativity from national leaders.

"The players put forth this alternative story," explained Molina. "The world witnessed Latinos displaying an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as leaders on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of masculinity. They're bombastic, 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 is so simple to be disheartened these days."

However, it's entirely straightforward to be a team supporter nowadays – for Molina or for the legions of other Latinos who show up faithfully to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the stadium's 50,000 seats per game.

A Complicated Relationship with the Organization

After intensified immigration raids began in Los Angeles in June, and national guard troops were deployed into the area to respond to resulting protests, two of the city's sports teams promptly issued messages of solidarity with immigrant families – but not the Dodgers.

The team president has said the organization want to steer clear of political issues – a view colored, possibly, by the fact that a sizable minority of the supporters, even Latinos, are followers of certain leaders. Under significant external demands, the team later pledged $1m in support for families personally impacted by the raids but issued no public criticism of the government.

White House Event and Past Heritage

Three months before, the organization did not hesitate in accepting an offer to celebrate their 2024 championship win at the official residence – a decision that local columnists described as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", considering the team's pride in having been the first professional franchise to break the racial segregation in the 1940s and the regular invocations of that legacy and the values it represents by officials and present and former athletes. A number of team members including the coach had expressed unwillingness to go to the event during the initial period but then changed their minds or succumbed to pressure from team management.

Business Control and Fan Dilemmas

A further issue for supporters is that the team are controlled by a corporate behemoth, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, as per sources and its own published balance sheets, involve a share in a detention corporation that runs detention centers. The group's leadership has stated many times that it aims to remain neutral of politics, but its critics say the silence – and the investment – are their own type of compliance to certain agendas.

All of that add up to significant conflicted emotions among Hispanic supporters in especial – sentiments that emerged even in the euphoria of this season's hard-won championship triumph and the following outpouring of Dodgers support across the city.

"Can one to root for the team?" area writer one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an elegant article pondering on "team loyalty in our veins, but doubt in our hearts". Galindo was unable to finally bring himself to watch the World Series, but he still felt strongly, to the point that he believed his personal boycott must have given the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Separating the Team from the Owners

Numerous supporters who share Galindo's misgivings appear to have concluded that they can continue to back the players and its roster of international players, including the Japanese superstar Shohei Ohtani, while expressing disdain on the organization's business leadership. At no place was this more evident than at the victory celebration at the home venue on the following day, when the packed audience roared in support of the manager and his athletes but booed the team president and the top official of the ownership group.

"These men in suits don't get to take our players from us," the fan said. "We have been with the Dodgers longer than they have."

Historical Background and Neighborhood Effect

The problem, though, goes further than just the team's present proprietors. The deal that moved the former franchise to the city in the 1950s involved the municipality demolishing three low-income Hispanic neighborhoods on a hill above downtown and then transferring the property to the organization for a fraction of its market value. A track on a mid-2000s album that chronicles the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the stadium stating that the house he lost to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most widely followed Mexican American columnist and media personality, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, dysfunctional relationship between the team and its fanbase. He calls the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even unhealthy devotion by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its supporters 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 noted over the summer, when calls to boycott the organization over its lack of reaction to the raids were upended by the awkward reality that attendance at home games remained steady, even at the peak of the demonstrations when downtown LA was subject to a nightly curfew.

Global Players and Fan Connections

Distinguishing the team from its business leadership is not a easy task, {