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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the World Series didn't occur during the tense final game last Saturday, when her squad pulled off multiple dramatic comeback act after another before winning in overtime against the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came a game earlier, when two supporting athletes, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a electrifying, game-winning play that simultaneously challenged many negative misconceptions touted about Latinos in recent decades.

The play itself was stunning: the outfielder charged in from left field to snag a ball he at first misjudged in the stadium lights, then threw it to second base to record another, game-winning out. Rojas, at second base, received the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, knocking him to the ground.

This was not just a remarkable athletic moment, perhaps the key shift in momentum in the team's direction after looking for most of the series like the underdog team. For Molina, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed uplift for Latinos and for the city after months of enforcement actions, troops patrolling the streets, and a constant drumbeat of criticism from national leaders.

"The players put forth this alternative story," explained the professor. "Everyone witnessed Latinos displaying an contagious pride and joy in what they do, acting as key figures on the team, having a distinct kind of masculinity. They're energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

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

Not that it's entirely straightforward to be a Dodgers fan these days – for her or for the legions of other Latinos who attend faithfully to home games and occupy as many as half of the venue's fifty thousand seats per game.

The Complicated Relationship with the Organization

When intensified immigration raids started in Los Angeles in early June, and military units were deployed into the city to respond to resulting demonstrations, two of the local sports clubs quickly issued statements of solidarity with affected communities – but not the baseball team.

The team president has said the organization prefer to steer clear of politics – a stance colored, perhaps, by the fact that a sizable portion of the supporters, even Latinos, are followers of certain political figures. After significant external demands, the organization later pledged $1m in support for individuals personally affected by the raids but issued no official criticism of the government.

Official Visit and Historical Heritage

Three months earlier, the team did not hesitate in accepting an offer to mark their previous World Series victory at the White House – a decision that sports columnists labeled as "pathetic … weak … and contradictory", given the team's pride in having been the pioneering professional team to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the frequent invocations of that history and the values it represents by officials and present and former athletes. A number of players including the manager had voiced reluctance to go to the White House during the first term but then reconsidered or gave in to demands from team management.

Corporate Ownership and Fan Dilemmas

A further complication for supporters is that the Dodgers are controlled by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, as per sources and its own released financial documents, include a share in a private prison corporation that operates enforcement centers. Guggenheim's leadership has stated repeatedly that it wants to remain neutral of politics, but its detractors say the inaction – and the investment – are their own type of acquiescence to certain policies.

These factors add up to considerable mixed feelings among Latino supporters in especial – feelings that emerged even in the euphoria of this season's hard-won World Series victory and the following explosion of Dodgers support across the city.

"Is it okay to root for the team?" local writer one observer reflected at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful essay pondering on "team loyalty in our veins, but uncertainty in our hearts". He couldn't ultimately bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt deeply, to the extent that he believed his one-man protest must have brought the squad the fortune it needed to succeed.

Distinguishing the Team from the Owners

Numerous supporters who have Galindo's misgivings appear to have concluded that they can keep to back the team and its lineup of global players, featuring the Japanese megastar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's business overlords. At no place was this more clear than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the capacity crowd cheered in support of the coach and his players but booed the team president and the top official of the ownership group.

"These men in formal attire don't get to take our boys in blue from us," the fan said. "We've been with the Dodgers longer than they have."

Past Context and Neighborhood Impact

The issue, though, runs deeper than just the team's present proprietors. The agreement that moved the former franchise to the city in the 1950s required the municipality razing three low-income Latino neighborhoods on a elevated area above the city center and then selling the property to the organization for a small part of its market value. A song on a 2005 album that documents the story has an low-income worker at the stadium revealing that the home he lost to removal is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, possibly southern California most widely followed Latino writer and media personality, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its audience. He calls the Dodgers the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even harmful devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for decades.

"They have acted around Latino followers while profiting from them with the other for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer wrote over the summer, when calls to avoid the team over its lack of reaction to the raids were upended by the awkward reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the height of the protests when the city center was subject to a evening restriction.

Global Stars and Fan Bonds

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