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For a lifelong Dodgers fan and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the baseball championship didn't occur during the nail-biting finale on Saturday, when her team executed one dramatic escape feat after another and then prevailing in extra innings over the opposing team.

It happened in the previous game, when two second-tier players, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a thrilling, decisive play that simultaneously challenged many harmful misconceptions promoted about Hispanic people in recent years.

The play in itself was breathtaking: the outfielder raced in from left field to snag a ball he initially misjudged in the stadium lights, then fired it to second base to secure another, decisive play. the second baseman, at second base, caught the ball just a split second before a runner collided with him, knocking him backwards.

This was not just a great athletic moment, perhaps the key shift in the series in the team's direction after looking for much of the series like the weaker team. To her, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a much-required uplift for Latinos and for the city after months of immigration raids, security forces patrolling the streets, and a constant drumbeat of criticism from national leaders.

"Kike and Miggy presented this alternative story," explained Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos showing an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and chased down. It's so simple to be demoralized these days."

However, it's entirely straightforward to be a Dodgers fan these days – for her or for the many of other Latinos who show up faithfully to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the venue's fifty thousand seats each time.

The Mixed Relationship with the Team

After intensified immigration raids started in Los Angeles in early June, and military units were deployed into the area to respond to resulting protests, two of the local sports clubs quickly issued messages of support with immigrant families – but not the baseball team.

The team president stated the organization prefer to steer clear of political issues – a view influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a significant minority of the fans, including Latinos, are supporters of current leaders. Under considerable external demands, the team later pledged $one million in support for individuals directly affected by the raids but issued no official condemnation of the administration.

Official Visit and Historical Heritage

Three months before, the team did not hesitate in agreeing to an offer to celebrate their previous World Series win at the official residence – a decision that sports columnists labeled as "disappointing … spineless … and hypocritical", given the team's boast in having been the pioneering professional franchise to break the color barrier in the 1940s and the regular references of that history and the values it embodies by executives and current and past athletes. A number of players including the manager had expressed unwillingness to travel to the White House during the first term but then changed their minds or gave in to pressure from the organization.

Business Control and Fan Conflicts

An additional complication for fans is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to sources and its own published balance sheets, involve a stake in a private prison company that runs enforcement centers. Guggenheim's leadership has stated repeatedly that it wants to remain neutral of politics, but its critics say the silence – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to current policies.

These factors add up to considerable conflicted emotions among Latino supporters in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this year's hard-won championship victory and the ensuing explosion of Dodgers pride across the city.

"Can one to support the Dodgers?" local columnist one observer reflected at the beginning of the playoffs in an elegant essay pondering on "Dodger blue in our veins, but uncertainty in our hearts". He couldn't finally bring himself to view the World Series, but he still cared deeply, to the point that he decided his one-man boycott must have given the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Distinguishing the Players from the Management

Many fans who share similar misgivings appear to have concluded that they can keep to support the team and its lineup of international players, including the Japanese megastar Shohei Ohtani, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate overlords. At no place was this more clear than at the victory celebration at the home venue on the following day, when the capacity crowd roared in support of the manager and his players but jeered the team president and the chief executive of the investors.

"The executives in suits do not get to take our boys in blue from us," the fan said. "We've been with the team longer than they have."

Historical Context and Community Effect

The issue, though, runs deeper than just the team's current owners. The agreement that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s required the municipality razing three working-class Hispanic communities on a elevated area above the city center and then transferring the property to the organization for a fraction of its actual worth. A song on a 2005 record that chronicles the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue revealing that the house he forfeited to removal is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most influential Latino writer and media personality, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its audience. He describes the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a corporate entity with an excessive, even unhealthy devotion by too many Latinos" that has been shortchanging its fans for decades.

"They've acted around Hispanic followers while profiting from them with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano noted over the summer, when calls to avoid the organization over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the awkward fact that attendance at home games remained steady, even at the height of the demonstrations when downtown LA was under to a nightly curfew.

Global Stars and Community Connections

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