🔗 Share this article

For Natalia Molina and third-generation Mexican American, the most memorable moment of the World Series didn't happen during the nail-biting finale on Saturday, when her squad executed one death-defying comeback feat after another before prevailing in overtime over the Toronto Blue Jays.

It happened in the previous game, when two second-tier athletes, Kike Hernández and Miguel Rojas, pulled off a electrifying, decisive play that at the same time challenged many harmful stereotypes touted about Latinos in the past decades.

The moment itself was stunning: Hernández charged in from the outfield to snag a ball he at first lost in the bright lights, then threw it to the infield to secure another, game-winning play. the second baseman, at second base, received the ball just a split second before a opposing player collided with him, knocking him backwards.

This was not just a great athletic achievement, possibly the decisive shift in the series in the team's favor after looking for much of the games like the weaker team. To her, it was thrilling, politically and culturally, a much-required morale boost for Latinos and for the city after a period of immigration raids, troops monitoring the streets, and a steady stream of negativity from official sources.

"Kike and Miggy presented this counter-narrative," explained Molina. "The world saw Latinos showing an contagious enthusiasm in what they do, acting as leaders on the team, having a distinct kind of confidence. They are bombastic, they're cheering, they're removing their shirts."

"It was such a contrast with what we observe on the news – enforcement actions, Latinos detained and pursued. It is so simple to be demoralized these days."

Not that it's exactly straightforward to be a Dodgers fan nowadays – for Molina or for the legions of other fans who attend faithfully to home games and fill up as many as 50% of the venue's 50,000 seats per game.

A Mixed Relationship with the Organization

When intensified immigration raids started in the city in early June, and military units were sent into the city to react to ensuing demonstrations, two of the local soccer teams quickly issued statements of support with immigrant families – while the Dodgers.

The team president has said the Dodgers prefer to stay away of politics – a stance influenced, perhaps, by the reality that a significant minority of the supporters, including some Hispanic fans, are followers of current political figures. Under significant public pressure, the organization later pledged $one million in aid for individuals directly impacted by the operations but made no public criticism of the government.

White House Visit and Historical Legacy

Months earlier, the organization did not hesitate in agreeing to an invitation to celebrate their 2024 World Series win at the official residence – a move that local writers labeled as "disappointing … spineless … and contradictory", given the Dodgers' boast in having been the pioneering major league franchise to end the racial segregation in the mid-20th century and the frequent invocations of that history and the principles it embodies by officials and current and former players. Several team members including the manager had expressed reluctance to go to the White House during the first term but then reconsidered or succumbed to pressure from team management.

Business Ownership and Fan Dilemmas

An additional issue for supporters is that the team are owned by a corporate behemoth, Guggenheim Partners, whose investments, according to media reports and its own published financial documents, involve a stake in a detention corporation that operates enforcement facilities. Guggenheim's leadership has said repeatedly that it wants to stay out of political matters, but its critics say the inaction – and the financial stake – are their own type of acquiescence to certain agendas.

These factors add up to considerable mixed feelings among Latino fans in especial – sentiments that surfaced even in the euphoria of this year's hard-fought World Series triumph and the ensuing explosion of team support across Los Angeles.

"Is it okay to support the Dodgers?" local columnist Erick Galindo agonized at the beginning of the postseason in an thoughtful article ruminating on "team loyalty in our blood, but uncertainty in our minds". Galindo couldn't ultimately bring himself to watch 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 win.

Separating the Players from the Owners

Numerous fans who share Galindo's misgivings seem to have concluded that they can keep to back the team and its roster of international stars, including the Japanese superstar a key player, while expressing disdain on the team's business leadership. Nowhere was this more clear than at the victory celebration at Dodger Stadium on the following day, when the packed audience roared in support of the coach and his players but booed the team president and the chief executive of the ownership group.

"These men in suits don't get to claim our boys in blue from us," the fan said. "We have been with the team longer than they have."

Historical Context and Community Effect

The issue, though, runs deeper than just the team's current owners. The deal that moved the Brooklyn Dodgers to the city in the late 1950s required the municipality demolishing three working-class Latino neighborhoods on a hill overlooking the city center and then transferring the land to the organization for a fraction of its actual worth. A song on a 2005 record that chronicles the story has an low-income worker at the stadium revealing that the home he lost to removal is now a part of the field.

A prominent commentator, perhaps southern California most widely followed Latino writer and media personality, sees a more troubling side to the long, problematic relationship between the team and its fanbase. He describes the team the popular snack of baseball, "a corporate entity with an excessive, even harmful following by too many Latinos" that has been shortchanging its fans for years.

"They've put one arm around Hispanic fans while picking their pockets with the other hand for so long because they have been able to get away with it," the writer noted over the summer, when calls to boycott the team over its lack of reaction to the enforcement actions were contradicted by the awkward reality that turnout at matches remained steady, even at the height of the demonstrations when the city center was under to a evening curfew.

International Stars and Community Connections

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