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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and longtime Mexican American, the crowning highlight of the World Series did not happen during the nail-biting final game on Saturday, when her squad pulled off one dramatic escape feat after another before winning in overtime over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came in the previous game, when two second-tier athletes, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a electrifying, decisive sequence that at the same time upended many negative stereotypes promoted about Hispanic people in the past years.

The moment itself was breathtaking: the outfielder raced in from the outfield to snag a ball he initially misjudged in the stadium lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, decisive out. the second baseman, positioned nearby, received the ball just a split second before a runner collided with him, knocking him backwards.

This was not merely a great sporting achievement, perhaps the decisive shift in momentum in the Dodgers' direction after appearing for most of the series like the underdog team. For Molina, it was exhilarating, on multiple levels, a badly needed morale boost for the community and for the city after a period of enforcement actions, security forces patrolling the streets, and a steady drumbeat of criticism from official sources.

"The players presented this alternative story," explained Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, being key figures on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're yelling, they're taking off their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and pursued. It is so easy to be disheartened right now."

However, it's exactly simple to be a team fan these days – for Molina or for the many of other fans who show up regularly to matches and fill up as many as half of the stadium's 50,000 seats per game.

A Mixed Connection with the Organization

After intensified enforcement operations started in the city in June, and national guard units were sent into the area to respond to ensuing demonstrations, two of the city's sports teams quickly issued messages of solidarity with immigrant families – while the Dodgers.

The team president has said the Dodgers want to steer clear of political issues – a view colored, perhaps, by the reality that a significant portion of the fans, including Latinos, are followers of current political figures. Under considerable public pressure, the organization subsequently committed $1m in aid for individuals personally impacted by the raids but made no public criticism of the administration.

White House Visit and Past Legacy

Three months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in accepting an offer to mark their previous championship win at the official residence – a move that local writers labeled as "pathetic … weak … and contradictory", given the Dodgers' pride in having been the first major league franchise to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the frequent invocations of that history and the principles it represents by officials and current and past athletes. A number of team members including the manager had voiced reluctance to go to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or gave in to demands from team management.

Business Control and Supporter Dilemmas

An additional complication for fans is that the team are controlled by a corporate behemoth, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, as per sources and its own published financial documents, include a share in a private prison company that operates enforcement facilities. The group's executives has stated many times that it wants to remain neutral of politics, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own form of acquiescence to current agendas.

These factors contribute to significant mixed feelings among Latino supporters in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the excitement of this season's hard-won World Series victory and the ensuing outpouring of team support across the city.

"Is it okay to support the team?" local writer one observer reflected at the beginning of the playoffs in an elegant essay pondering on "team loyalty in our blood, but uncertainty in our minds". He was unable to finally bring himself to view the World Series, but he still cared deeply, to the extent that he believed his personal boycott must have brought the team the fortune it required to succeed.

Separating the Team from the Management

Numerous fans who share similar misgivings appear to have concluded that they can keep to support the team and its roster of global players, featuring the Asian superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's corporate leadership. Nowhere was this more evident than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the packed audience cheered in support of the coach and his players but jeered the executive and the chief executive of the investors.

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

Historical Background and Neighborhood Impact

The issue, though, goes further than just the team's present owners. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the late 1950s involved the municipality razing three low-income Hispanic neighborhoods on a hill above the city center and then selling the land to the organization for a small part of its market value. A song on a 2005 album that chronicles the events has an low-income parking attendant at the stadium stating that the home he forfeited to removal is now a part of the field.

Gustavo Arellano, possibly southern California most influential Mexican American writer and media personality, sees a darker side to the long, problematic dynamic between the team and its audience. He describes the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even harmful following by numerous Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for years.

"They've put one arm around Latino fans while profiting from them with the other hand for so long because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer noted over the summer, when demands to boycott the organization over its absence of reaction to the enforcement actions were upended by the uncomfortable fact that turnout at home games did not dip, even at the peak of the demonstrations when the city center was subject to a nightly restriction.

International Players and Community Bonds

Distinguishing the team from its corporate owners is not a simple task, {