🔗 Share this article

In the eyes of Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable moment of the World Series didn't occur during the nail-biting finale last Saturday, when her team pulled off multiple dramatic comeback act after another and then winning in overtime over the opposing team.

It happened in the previous game, when two second-tier athletes, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a electrifying, decisive sequence that simultaneously upended numerous harmful misconceptions promoted about Hispanic people in recent decades.

The moment in itself was stunning: the outfielder raced 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, decisive play. the second baseman, at second base, received the ball just a split second before a opposing player collided with him, sending him to the ground.

This wasn't just a great athletic achievement, perhaps the key shift in momentum in the Dodgers' direction after looking for most of the games like the weaker team. To her, it was thrilling, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for the community and for the city after a period of enforcement actions, security forces patrolling the neighborhoods, and a constant drumbeat of criticism from national leaders.

"The players presented this counter-narrative," explained Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos showing an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, being key figures on the team, exhibiting a different kind of confidence. They are bombastic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"This represented such a contrast with what we observe on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and chased down. It's so simple to be demoralized these days."

However, it's exactly simple to be a team supporter nowadays – for her or for the many of other fans who show up regularly to home games and occupy as many as 50% of the venue's 50,000 spots each time.

The Mixed Connection with the Team

When intensified immigration raids began in the city in June, and national guard units were sent into the area to respond to resulting demonstrations, two of the city's soccer clubs promptly issued messages of solidarity with affected communities – but not the Dodgers.

The team president stated the Dodgers want to steer clear of political issues – a stance colored, perhaps, by the reality that a sizable portion of the fans, even Latinos, are followers of current leaders. Under considerable public pressure, the organization later committed $1m in support for individuals personally affected by the operations but made no official criticism of the government.

White House Visit and Historical Legacy

Months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in agreeing to an invitation to mark their previous World Series victory at the official residence – a move that local writers described as "disappointing … weak … and hypocritical", considering the Dodgers' boast in having been the pioneering professional franchise to break the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the regular invocations of that history and the values it embodies by officials and present and former players. A number of players including the coach had voiced unwillingness to go to the event during the first term but then changed their minds or succumbed to demands from the organization.

Business Control and Supporter Conflicts

A further complication for supporters is that the team are owned by a large investment group, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, according to media reports and its own published balance sheets, involve a stake in a detention corporation that runs detention centers. Guggenheim's leadership has said repeatedly that it aims to remain neutral of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the investment – are their own type of acquiescence to current policies.

These factors contribute to significant mixed feelings among Latino fans in particular – feelings that surfaced even in the euphoria of this season's hard-won championship victory and the following explosion of Dodgers support across the city.

"Is it okay to support the Dodgers?" area writer one observer agonized at the start of the postseason in an thoughtful essay ruminating on "Dodger blue in our blood, but uncertainty in our hearts". Galindo was unable to ultimately bring himself to view the championship, but he still felt deeply, to the point that he believed his personal boycott must have brought the team the luck it required to succeed.

Distinguishing the Team from the Owners

Many fans who have similar reservations seem to have decided that they can continue to support the team and its roster of international stars, including the Asian megastar Shohei Ohtani, while pouring scorn on the team's corporate leadership. Nowhere was this more evident than at the championship parade at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the capacity crowd cheered in approval of the manager and his players but jeered the team president and the chief executive of the investors.

"These men in formal attire do not get to claim our players from us," Molina said. "We have been with the team for more time than they have."

Past Context and Neighborhood Impact

The issue, however, goes further than only the team's current proprietors. The agreement that brought the Brooklyn Dodgers to Los Angeles in the 1950s required the city razing three working-class Hispanic communities 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 documents the events has an low-income parking attendant at the stadium revealing that the house he lost to removal is now third base.

A prominent commentator, possibly southern California most influential Mexican American columnist and broadcaster, sees a more troubling side to the long, dysfunctional relationship between the team and its fanbase. He describes the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even harmful devotion by too many Latinos" that has been shortchanging its fans for years.

"They have acted around Hispanic followers while profiting from them with the other hand for so long because they have been able to get away with it," Arellano wrote over the summer, when calls to boycott the organization over its lack of response to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the uncomfortable reality that turnout at home games did not dip, even at the height of the protests when downtown LA was under to a nightly restriction.

International Stars and Fan Connections

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