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In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable highlight of the World Series did not happen during the nail-biting final game last Saturday, when her squad executed one dramatic comeback act after another before winning in extra innings over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It happened a game earlier, when two supporting players, Kike Hernández and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a electrifying, game-winning sequence that at the same time challenged numerous negative misconceptions promoted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The moment itself was stunning: Hernández raced in from the outfield to catch a ball he initially lost in the bright lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, game-winning out. Rojas, at second base, received the ball moments before a runner barreled into him, knocking him backwards.

This was not merely a remarkable sporting moment, perhaps the key shift in the series in the team's direction after appearing for most of the games like the weaker side. For Molina, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a much-required morale boost for the community and for the city after a period of immigration raids, troops patrolling the neighborhoods, and a constant drumbeat of negativity from official sources.

"Kike and Miggy presented this alternative story," said Molina. "Everyone witnessed Latinos showing an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as key figures on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of masculinity. They are energetic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a juxtaposition with what we observe on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos thrown to the ground and pursued. It is so easy to be demoralized these days."

Not that it's exactly simple to be a team supporter nowadays – for her or for the many of other Latinos who attend faithfully to matches and occupy as many as half of the venue's fifty thousand spots each time.

A Complicated Relationship with the Organization

When intensified enforcement operations started in Los Angeles in early June, and military troops were sent into the area to respond to resulting demonstrations, two of the local soccer clubs promptly issued messages of support with immigrant families – but not the baseball team.

The team president has said the organization prefer to stay away of politics – a view influenced, possibly, by the fact that a significant portion of the fans, even Latinos, are followers of certain political figures. After considerable public pressure, the team later pledged $1m in aid for individuals personally affected by the operations but made no public criticism of the administration.

White House Visit and Historical Heritage

Months before, the organization did not hesitate in agreeing to an offer to celebrate their previous World Series victory at the official residence – a decision that local columnists labeled as "pathetic … spineless … and contradictory", considering the team's boast in having been the first professional franchise to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the frequent invocations of that history and the principles it embodies by executives and present and former players. Several team members including the manager had expressed reluctance to go to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or succumbed to pressure from team management.

Business Control and Fan Conflicts

A further complication for fans is that the team are controlled by a large investment group, the ownership group, whose investments, according to sources and its own released balance sheets, include a stake in a private prison company that runs enforcement facilities. Guggenheim's executives has said repeatedly that it wants to stay out of political matters, but its detractors say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of compliance to certain agendas.

All of that add up to significant mixed feelings among Hispanic fans in particular – feelings that emerged even in the excitement of this season's hard-won championship victory and the ensuing outpouring of Dodgers support across the city.

"Can one to root for the Dodgers?" area columnist one observer reflected at the start of the postseason in an thoughtful article ruminating on "Dodger blue in our blood, but doubt in our minds". He couldn't finally bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt strongly, to the point that he believed his one-man protest must have brought the team the luck it required to win.

Separating the Players from the Owners

Numerous supporters who share similar reservations appear to have concluded that they can keep to back the players and its roster of international stars, including the Asian megastar a key player, while expressing disdain on the organization's corporate leadership. At no place was this more evident than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the packed audience cheered in approval of the manager and his athletes 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 Community Impact

The problem, however, goes further than only the team's current owners. The agreement that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in the late 1950s involved the municipality demolishing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill above the city center and then selling the property to the team for a fraction of its market value. A song on a mid-2000s record that chronicles the story has an impoverished parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the home he lost to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, possibly southern California most influential Latino columnist and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the lengthy, problematic dynamic between the team and its audience. He calls the team the popular snack of baseball, "a business organization with an undue, even unhealthy devotion 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 wrote over the warmer months, when demands to avoid the team over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were upended by the awkward reality that turnout at matches did not dip, even at the peak of the demonstrations when downtown LA was subject to a nightly restriction.

Global Stars and Fan Connections

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