Sacramento River Cats dig themselves into hole with Gold Diggers name, video that insults women
Sacramento River Cats' Keaton Winn pitches during an exhibition game against the San Francisco Giants on March 23 at Sutter Health Park. The River Cats have scrapped plans to call themselves the Gold Diggers during certain games after complaints that the term is offensive toward women.
(Scott Marshall / Getty Images)
A minor league affiliate of the San Francisco Giants has scrapped plans to use "Gold Diggers" as an alternative team name during a handful of games this year after women were offended by a video marketing the name.
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The Sacramento River Cats, who play in the triple-A Pacific Coast League and currently share Sutter Health Park with the MLB's Athletics, announced Thursday that they would be playing as the Sacramento Gold Diggers during five games this season, starting with an April 19 home game against the Salt Lake City Bees.
The Gold Diggers logo featured a bearded man, who appeared to be a miner, carrying a pickaxe over his shoulder and wearing a headlamp with a baseball where the light should be. A promotional video, which has since been removed from YouTube and online, seems to have somewhat stuck with the Gold Rush theme while also leaning into the meaning of "gold digger" that insults women.
The video reportedly depicted two women with dollar signs in place of their eyes staring at a baseball player who had just emerged from a gold mine. One of the women is said to have been wearing a low-cut top with a large ring on her finger while accompanied by a man looking much older than her.
Read more: Dodgers' minor league team unwittingly rebrands with a NSFW name
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The River Cats apologized Friday afternoon in a statement emailed to The Times.
"Our recent marketing campaign for an alternative identity clearly missed the mark," the team wrote. "Our intention was to creatively reference the rich history of Sacramento and gold country, but our approach was wrong, and we are sorry for the mistake. We will no longer be using this identity."
Merchandise featuring the Gold Diggers name and logo — including women's and men's T-shirts that had the name in large letters with "baseball" in much smaller letters underneath and a large, gold dollar sign below that — was removed from the team's online store around noon Friday.
According to the Sacramento Bee, multiple elected officials from Sacramento and West Sacramento attempted Thursday to get the River Cats to scrub the promotional video online.
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"I was appalled by the sexist and offensive marketing ad chosen by a well respected and beloved team," West Sacramento City Councilmember Quirina Orozco said in a statement emailed to The Times. "I speak for many who have fought hard to uplift women's voices, remove barriers to leadership, and pave pathways for women and girls everywhere when I say that messages like these should be denounced and have no place in our community.
"I'm pleased that the River Cats have pulled their campaign and hope to work with them on future remediation efforts that benefit women and girls throughout our region."
Read more: Like it or not, the A's have a new home, and it's a win for this scrappy city
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This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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