Los Angeles Dodgers Claim the Championship, However for Hispanic Supporters, It's Not So Simple

In the eyes of a lifelong Dodgers fan and third-generation Mexican American, the crowning moment of the baseball championship did not happen during the nail-biting finale on Saturday, when her squad pulled off one death-defying escape feat after another before prevailing in extra innings over the opposing team.

It came in the previous game, when two second-tier athletes, the Puerto Rican player and Miguel Rojas, executed a thrilling, game-winning play that at the same time upended many negative misconceptions touted about Latinos in the past years.

The play in itself was breathtaking: Hernández charged in from the outfield to snag a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then fired it to second base to record another, decisive play. Rojas, positioned nearby, received the ball moments before a opposing player collided with him, knocking him to the ground.

This was not just a great athletic moment, possibly the decisive turn in momentum in the Dodgers' direction after appearing for much of the games like the underdog team. For Molina, it was thrilling, on multiple levels, a much-required uplift for the community and for the city after months of immigration raids, troops monitoring the streets, and a steady stream of criticism from national leaders.

"The players presented this alternative story," explained Molina. "Everyone saw Latinos displaying an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, being leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of masculinity. They are energetic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a juxtaposition with what we see on the news – raids, Latinos detained and chased down. It is so easy to be disheartened these days."

However, it's entirely straightforward to be a team supporter nowadays – for her or for the many of other Latinos who attend regularly to home games and fill up as many as 50% of the venue's fifty thousand seats each time.

The Complicated Relationship with the Organization

When aggressive immigration raids began in the city in early June, and military troops were sent into the city to react to ensuing protests, two of the local sports clubs quickly issued statements of support with affected communities – while the Dodgers.

The team president stated the organization want to steer clear of politics – a view colored, possibly, by the reality that a sizable portion of the fans, even some Hispanic fans, are supporters of certain leaders. Under considerable external demands, the organization subsequently pledged $1m in aid for families directly affected by the raids but made no public criticism of the administration.

Official Event and Historical Legacy

Months earlier, the team did not delay in agreeing to an offer to mark their previous championship victory at the White House – a decision that sports columnists described as "disappointing … weak … and contradictory", given the Dodgers' pride 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 represents by officials and current and past players. Several players including the coach had voiced unwillingness to go to the event during the first term but either reconsidered or succumbed to demands from team management.

Corporate Ownership and Supporter Dilemmas

An additional complication for supporters is that the team are owned by a corporate behemoth, the ownership group, whose equity holdings, as per media reports and its own published balance sheets, involve a stake in a private prison corporation that runs detention centers. Guggenheim's leadership has stated many times that it wants to remain neutral of politics, but its detractors say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of compliance to certain agendas.

All of that contribute to significant mixed feelings among Latino fans in particular – sentiments that surfaced even in the excitement of this season's hard-won World Series victory and the ensuing outpouring of team support across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to root for the team?" local columnist one observer agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful article ruminating on "Dodger blue in our veins, but doubt in our minds". Galindo was unable to ultimately bring himself to view the World Series, but he still cared deeply, to the point that he decided his one-man protest must have brought the squad the fortune it needed to win.

Distinguishing the Team from the Owners

Numerous fans who share Galindo's misgivings appear to have concluded that they can keep to back the team and its lineup of international stars, including the Asian superstar a key player, while pouring scorn on the organization's business overlords. At no place was this more evident than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on Monday, when the capacity crowd cheered in support of the coach and his players but booed the executive and the chief executive of the ownership group.

"The executives in suits do not get to claim our players from us," the fan said. "We've been with the Dodgers for more time than they have."

Past Context and Neighborhood Impact

The issue, though, goes further than just the team's present owners. The agreement that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the 1950s required the city demolishing three working-class Latino communities on a elevated area above the city center and then transferring the property to the organization for a fraction of its actual worth. A track on a 2005 record that documents the events has an impoverished parking attendant at the venue revealing that the home he forfeited to removal is now a part of the field.

Gustavo Arellano, perhaps southern California most widely followed Mexican American writer and media personality, sees a darker side to the lengthy, dysfunctional dynamic between the franchise and its audience. He calls the team the Flamin' Hot Cheetos of baseball, "a business organization with an excessive, even harmful devotion by numerous Latinos" that has been shortchanging its supporters for decades.

"They've put one arm around Latino fans while picking their pockets with the other hand for so much time because they have been able to avoid consequences," the writer noted over the summer, when demands to boycott the organization over its absence of reaction to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the uncomfortable fact that turnout at home games remained steady, even at the peak of the demonstrations when the city center was subject to a nightly restriction.

International Players and Fan Connections

Separating the squad from its business leadership is not a easy matter, {