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For Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning highlight of the World Series did not happen during the tense final game on Saturday, when her team executed one death-defying comeback feat after another before prevailing in overtime over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It came a game earlier, when two supporting players, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a electrifying, game-winning sequence that at the same time upended numerous negative misconceptions touted about Hispanic people in the past years.

The moment in itself was stunning: the outfielder charged in from left field to catch a ball he at first misjudged in the bright lights, then threw it to the infield to record another, decisive play. Rojas, positioned nearby, received the ball just a split second before a runner barreled into him, sending him backwards.

This wasn't merely a great sporting moment, possibly the decisive turn in the series in the Dodgers' favor after looking for most of the games like the weaker team. For Molina, it was exhilarating, politically and culturally, a badly needed morale boost for Latinos and for the city after a period of enforcement actions, troops monitoring the neighborhoods, and a steady stream of negativity from national leaders.

"The players put forth this alternative story," explained the professor. "The world saw Latinos showing an infectious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as key figures on the team, exhibiting a distinct kind of confidence. They are bombastic, they're yelling, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – raids, Latinos detained and chased down. It's so easy to be demoralized right now."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a team fan these days – for Molina or for the legions of other fans who show up faithfully to matches and occupy as many as 50% of the venue's fifty thousand spots each time.

A Complicated Connection with the Team

When aggressive immigration raids started in the city in June, and military units were sent into the area to react to ensuing protests, two of the local soccer clubs quickly released statements of support with immigrant families – but not the Dodgers.

The team president stated the Dodgers want to steer clear of politics – a stance influenced, possibly, by the fact that a sizable minority of the fans, including Latinos, are supporters of certain political figures. Under considerable public pressure, the team subsequently pledged $1m in aid for individuals personally affected by the raids but issued no public criticism of the government.

White House Visit and Past Heritage

Months before, the team did not hesitate in accepting an offer to celebrate their previous championship victory at the White House – a decision that sports columnists described as "pathetic … weak … and hypocritical", given the Dodgers' pride in having been the first professional franchise to end the color barrier in the 1940s and the regular references of that history and the principles it embodies by executives and present and former players. Several team members such as the coach had expressed unwillingness to go to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or gave in to pressure from the organization.

Business Ownership and Supporter Conflicts

A further complication for supporters is that the team are owned by a large investment group, Guggenheim Partners, whose equity holdings, according to sources and its own published balance sheets, include a share in a private prison company that operates detention facilities. Guggenheim's executives has said many times that it wants to remain neutral of politics, but its critics say the silence – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to certain policies.

All of that add up to significant mixed feelings among Latino fans in especial – feelings that emerged even in the euphoria of this year's hard-fought World Series triumph and the following outpouring of team support across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to root for the Dodgers?" local writer Erick Galindo reflected at the beginning of the postseason in an elegant essay ruminating on "Dodger blue in our blood, but doubt in our minds". He was unable to finally bring himself to watch the championship, but he still cared strongly, to the point that he believed his one-man boycott must have given the squad the fortune it needed to succeed.

Separating the Team from the Owners

Many supporters who share similar misgivings seem to have concluded that they can continue to support the players and its lineup of international players, including the Japanese megastar a key player, while expressing disdain on the organization's corporate overlords. At no place was this more clear than at the victory celebration at the home venue on Monday, when the packed audience roared in support of the coach and his athletes but jeered the team president and the chief executive of the ownership group.

"These men in suits don't get to take our players from us," the fan said. "We've been with the Dodgers for more time than they have."

Historical Background and Community Effect

The issue, however, runs deeper than just the organization's present proprietors. The agreement that brought the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s required the municipality demolishing three low-income Latino neighborhoods on a elevated area overlooking the city center and then selling the property to the team for a small part of its market value. A song on a 2005 record that documents the story has an low-income worker at the venue revealing that the house he forfeited to eviction is now third base.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps the region's most influential Latino writer and media personality, sees a darker side to the long, dysfunctional relationship between the team and its audience. He describes the Dodgers the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an undue, even unhealthy devotion by too many Latinos" that has been exploiting its fans for decades.

"They have put one arm around Latino followers while profiting from them with the other for so long because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer wrote over the warmer months, when demands to avoid the organization over its lack of reaction to the enforcement actions were upended by the awkward reality that attendance at matches did not dip, even at the height of the demonstrations when the city center was under to a nightly curfew.

International Stars and Fan Connections

Distinguishing the squad from its business leadership is not a easy task, {