🔗 Share this article

In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and longtime Mexican American, the most memorable moment of the World Series did not happen during the tense final game on Saturday, when her team executed one death-defying escape feat after another before winning in extra innings over the opposing team.

It happened a game earlier, when two second-tier players, the Puerto Rican player and the Venezuelan infielder, pulled off a electrifying, game-winning sequence that simultaneously challenged numerous harmful misconceptions touted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The moment itself was stunning: Hernández charged in from left field to snag a ball he initially misjudged in the stadium lights, then threw it to second base to secure another, decisive out. 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 sporting moment, perhaps the decisive shift in the series in the team's direction after appearing for much of the series like the weaker team. To her, it was thrilling, politically and culturally, a much-required morale boost for Latinos and for Los Angeles after a period of immigration raids, troops monitoring the streets, and a constant drumbeat of negativity from national leaders.

"Kike and Miggy put forth this alternative story," said Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of confidence. They're energetic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a contrast with what we see on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos thrown to the ground and chased down. It is so easy to be demoralized right now."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a Dodgers fan nowadays – for her or for the legions of other Latinos who show up regularly to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the venue's fifty thousand seats per game.

A Mixed Connection with the Team

When intensified immigration raids began in Los Angeles in June, and military units were sent into the city to react to ensuing demonstrations, two of the city's sports teams promptly issued messages of support with immigrant families – but not the baseball team.

The team president stated the Dodgers prefer to stay away of political issues – a stance influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a significant portion of the supporters, including some Hispanic fans, are supporters of current political figures. After considerable external demands, the organization subsequently pledged $one million in support for individuals personally impacted by the operations but made no public condemnation of the government.

White House Event and Past Heritage

Three months before, the organization did not delay in agreeing to an invitation to celebrate their previous World Series victory at the official residence – a decision that local columnists labeled as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", given the team's pride in having been the first major league team to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the frequent references of that history and the principles it represents by executives and present and past athletes. A number of team members such as the coach had voiced reluctance to travel to the event during the initial period but either changed their minds or gave in to pressure from team management.

Business Control and Fan Conflicts

An additional issue for fans is that the Dodgers are controlled by a corporate behemoth, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, as per media reports and its own released balance sheets, include a stake in a private prison company that operates detention centers. The group's leadership has said many times that it wants to remain neutral of political matters, but its detractors say the silence – and the investment – are their own type of compliance to current policies.

These factors contribute to significant mixed feelings among Hispanic fans in especial – feelings that emerged even in the excitement of this year's hard-fought World Series victory and the following explosion of Dodgers pride across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to support the team?" local writer Erick Galindo reflected at the start of the playoffs in an thoughtful article pondering on "Dodger blue in our blood, but doubt in our minds". He couldn't finally bring himself to view the World Series, but he still felt strongly, to the extent that he believed his one-man boycott must have given the team the fortune it needed to win.

Distinguishing the Players from the Management

Numerous fans who have similar misgivings seem to have concluded that they can continue to support the players and its lineup of international stars, featuring the Japanese superstar 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 Monday, when the packed audience cheered in support of the manager and his players but jeered the executive and the top official of the investors.

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

Past Context and Community Impact

The issue, however, goes further than only the organization's current owners. The agreement that brought the former franchise to Los Angeles in the late 1950s required the city razing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill above the city center and then transferring the land to the organization for a fraction of its market value. A track on a mid-2000s album that documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the house he forfeited to eviction is now third base.

A prominent commentator, possibly the region's most influential Latino columnist and broadcaster, sees a darker side to the lengthy, problematic relationship between the franchise and its fanbase. He calls the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy following by too many Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for years.

"They've acted around Latino fans while picking their pockets with the other for so long because they have been able to avoid consequences," Arellano wrote over the summer, when calls to avoid the team over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the awkward fact that attendance at matches did not dip, even at the height of the protests when downtown LA was subject to a evening restriction.

Global Players and Community Connections

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