Baseball team ditches Gold Diggers name change after outrage

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A minor-league baseball team was digging for gold with a new promotion but instead only dug itself into a hole with fans.

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The Sacramento River Cats, the triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants, have nixed a promo that would’ve seen the team renamed the Gold Diggers for several games this season.

The team dropped the gimmick idea after a promo video posted on YouTube sparked outrage over the sexist trope.

The minor-league club had been set to use the alternate name and new uniforms for five games this season, starting this Saturday against the Salt Lake Bees.

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“Inspired by the regional history of the California Gold Rush, this new identity offers a connection to the significant impact of this era when Sacramento grew as the closest major city to the gold fields,” the River Cats told the Sacramento Bee.

But a YouTube video aimed to promote the alternate name only put the team in the crosshairs when it featured two women with dollar signs in their eyes upon seeing a player.

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The video, which has since been deleted from YouTube, shows a player emerge from a gold mine carrying a pickaxe. As he walks through the city, two women notice him and turn their attention away from their male companions.

According to those who saw the clip before it was taken down, animated dollar signs appeared in the women’s eyes as he crossed a local bridge and switched his pickaxe for a bat and bag full of golden baseballs.

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Sacramento Bee columnist Robin Epley called out the team’s name as “misogynist.”

“I shouldn’t have to explain why this video is bad, but hey, maybe you hit your head recently: ‘Gold Digger’ is not a nice name,” she wrote.

“It’s not a name typically used in any fashion other than to insult women. And by the way, it’s often used to describe a situation that, for many women, is the only sense of financial security they’ll ever be able to obtain, by using the one privilege that society has always encouraged them to use (i.e. their bodies).”

Sacramento city council member Lisa Kaplan also criticized the ad campaign, posting on X that it “missed the mark big time.”

“It is a sexist and demeaning video. I expect better from your organization.”

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The team has apologized for its lack of sensitivity with the name change and the promotional video.

“Our recent marketing campaign for an alternative identity clearly missed the mark,” the River Cats said in a statement to SFGate.

“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.”

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