Sacramento minor league team scraps 'sexist and demeaning' Gold Diggers identity 1 day after reveal, backlash

The Sacramento River Cats, Triple-A affiliate of the San Francisco Giants and current co-tenant of the Athletics, unveiled a new alternate identity on Thursday. It didn't go well.

Sacramento announced it would take the field five times as the "Sacramento Gold Diggers," with a black and gold uniform featuring miner and dollar sign logos in a supposed nod to the city's history with the California gold rush. Of course, the term "gold digger" has come to mean something else these days.

The merchandise was put up for sale immediately, with the team saying it would be wearing its new uniforms for the first time on April 19. River Cats president and COO Chip Maxson even appeared on local news fully decked out in the new look.

The River Cats removed all benefit of the doubt when they posted a video — preserved in this reaction video on the Sacramento Bee's website — in which two women, one of them apparently in a relationship with an older man, get distracted by a guy in a Gold Digger get-up, with cartoon dollar signs in their eyes.

There was immediate criticism that the River Cats' new identity held up a sexist trope, so much so that the team immediately backtracked. All social media posts about the Gold Diggers have been removed and the merchandise is no longer available on any online shop.

The team released a statement to SF Gate's Alex Simon calling the whole idea a mistake:

“Our recent marketing campaign for an alternative identity clearly missed the mark. 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.”

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Wacky alternate identities,