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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the baseball championship didn't occur during the tense final game last Saturday, when her squad executed one dramatic comeback feat after another and then winning in extra innings against the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came in the previous game, when two supporting athletes, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a thrilling, game-winning sequence that at the same time upended numerous negative stereotypes touted about Latinos in recent decades.

The moment in itself was stunning: the outfielder charged in from left field to snag a ball he at first misjudged in the stadium lights, then fired it to the infield to record another, game-winning play. Rojas, at second base, caught the ball moments before a opposing player collided with him, sending him backwards.

This was not just a remarkable sporting achievement, possibly the key shift in momentum in the team's favor after looking for much of the series like the weaker team. To her, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for Latinos and for the city after a period of immigration raids, security forces monitoring the neighborhoods, and a steady stream of criticism from national leaders.

"The players presented this counter-narrative," said Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos displaying an infectious pride and joy in what they do, being leaders on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're cheering, they're taking off their shirts."

"It was such a contrast with what we observe on the news – raids, Latinos thrown to the ground and chased down. It is so easy to be disheartened right now."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a team supporter nowadays – for Molina or for the many of other Latinos who show up faithfully to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the stadium's fifty thousand seats per game.

A Mixed Relationship with the Organization

When aggressive immigration raids began in the city in early June, and military troops were sent into the city to respond to resulting protests, two of the local soccer clubs quickly released messages of solidarity with affected communities – but not the Dodgers.

Management stated the organization prefer to stay away of political issues – a view colored, possibly, by the fact that a significant portion of the fans, including Latinos, are supporters of current leaders. After significant external demands, the organization later committed $1m in support for families personally affected by the operations but made no official criticism of the administration.

White House Visit and Past Heritage

Months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in accepting an invitation to celebrate their 2024 World Series victory at the official residence – a decision that local writers described as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", considering the Dodgers' boast in having been the first major league team to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the regular invocations of that history and the principles it embodies by executives and current and past athletes. Several players such as the coach had expressed reluctance to go to the event during the initial period but either reconsidered or gave in to pressure from the organization.

Corporate Ownership and Fan Conflicts

A further complication for fans is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, the ownership group, whose investments, as per sources and its own published balance sheets, involve a stake in a private prison company that runs detention facilities. The group's leadership has stated repeatedly that it wants to remain neutral of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of compliance to certain agendas.

These factors add up to considerable mixed feelings among Latino supporters in particular – sentiments that emerged even in the euphoria of this season's hard-fought World Series triumph and the following outpouring of team pride across the city.

"Can one to root for the Dodgers?" area writer Erick Galindo agonized at the start of the playoffs in an elegant article ruminating on "team loyalty in our blood, but uncertainty in our minds". He was unable to ultimately bring himself to watch the World Series, but he still felt strongly, to the extent that he believed his personal boycott must have given the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Distinguishing the Players from the Owners

Many supporters who have similar misgivings seem to have concluded that they can keep to back the players and its roster of global players, including the Asian superstar Shohei Ohtani, while pouring scorn on the organization's corporate leadership. Nowhere was this more clear than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the packed audience roared in approval of the coach and his athletes but jeered the executive and the top official of the investors.

"These men in suits don't get to claim our players from us," Molina said. "We've been with the Dodgers for more time than they have."

Past Background and Neighborhood Effect

The issue, though, runs deeper than just the organization's current owners. The agreement that brought the former franchise to the city in the 1950s required the city demolishing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a elevated area above downtown and then selling the property to the organization for a fraction of its actual worth. A track on a 2005 album that chronicles the story has an low-income parking attendant at the venue stating that the home he lost to eviction is now a part of the field.

A prominent commentator, possibly southern California most widely followed Mexican American writer and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its audience. He calls the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even harmful devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for years.

"They've acted around Latino followers while picking their pockets with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano wrote over the summer, when demands to avoid the organization over its absence of reaction to the raids were upended by the awkward reality that attendance at matches remained steady, even at the peak of the demonstrations when downtown LA was subject to a nightly curfew.

International Stars and Fan Connections

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