River Cats’ rebrand is misogynistic joke on women — and they just proved it | Opinion
If this were an April Fool’s joke, I might have laughed. But when the Sacramento River Cats released a promotional video unveiling “a new identity” on Thursday, the joke ended up being on every woman in Sacramento.
And no, it’s really not funny unless you think 1950s-era tropes about women only seeing dollar signs when sizing up men are funny. You see, the new identity of the River Cats on selected games will be the Sacramento “Gold Diggers,” and the team has made it very clear that they think women are the butt of their joke.
The uniforms will be worn at five games from April to September, allowing the River Cats a chance to sell a new line of merch– oops, I mean, “celebrate our regional history.”
Did no one in the River Cats orbit speak up and say: “Hey guys, maybe we should rethink this marketing video where we imply every woman in Sacramento is a gold digger?”
Apparently not.
And now, the new name has managed to offend women on city councils on both sides of the river within hours of its posting online. The only smart thing the River Cats team could do now to rectify this would be to drop the rebrand and go into full retreat.
In a now-deleted YouTube video on the River Cats official channel — hastily removed by Friday morning — we saw a baseball player exit the mouth of a gold mine, pickaxe in hand. As he walks the streets of Sacramento, he catches the eye of no less than two couples. Both of the women, one of whom is wearing a low-cut shirt and admiring a ring on her finger (Because, get it? She trades sex for money!) immediately ignore their male partners to stare at the player.
Then, and I realllllly wish I was kidding about this: The women get cartoon dollar signs in their eyes.
The player finishes his strut through town across the Tower Bridge to West Sacramento, where he exchanges his pickaxe and sack of golden baseballs for a bat on the field at Sutter Health Park.
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. 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).
This video showed us exactly what the leadership at the River Cats thinks of women. There is no hiding behind “it’s just a joke” after this.
Because this was clearly meant as a joke, but it was a joke meant to shame women into feeling bad about themselves. And yet, the only thing I’m ashamed of right now is Sacramento’s name attached to the River Cats brand.
Within hours of the video being posted, elected officials across the region were attempting to have it taken down.
“As a woman, as a mom, as an elected official — I was shocked,” said West Sacramento City Councilwoman and Mayor Pro-Tem, Verna Sulpizio-Hull. “The video is disrespectful to women, misogynistic and downright offensive. This attempt to market a team that we love, with such a demeaning message about women, does not align with our values in West Sacramento.”
Sacramento City Councilwoman Lisa Kaplan called the video “sexist and demeaning” in a tweet and likened it to a “1950s-era Mad Men” advertisement.
“At this time in our nation, where women’s rights are being reversed, it is more important than ever that women leaders stand up and denounce any time women are seen as token sex pieces or less than equal,” she wrote in a statement.
West Sacramento City Councilwoman Quirina Orozco, in whose district Sutter Health Park sits, and the longest-serving councilwoman in the history of the city said that she found the video offensive and was upset by its use.
“This video does not comport with the positive and well-established reputation of our minor league champions. We expect better. We can do better,” Orozco wrote in a statement Thursday evening.
We have to ask ourselves: Is this an ad representing West Sacramento, where the River Cats play and the entire City Council is female? Is this an ad representing California, where we are seriously considering — not one, not two, but several — serious female contenders for governor?
(No. The answer is “No.”)
It’s exhausting having to explain why “jokes” like this aren’t funny. It’s exhausting coming up with illogical, mind-bending reasons to excuse outright, offensive mockery. And it’s exhausting watching women’s bodily rights fluctuate, depending on who’s in office at any given moment, and it’s exhausting having to pick your battles — because there are just too many to choose from.
Every woman you know has a story about just how exhausted she is. And every woman you know knows it’s easier to laugh uneasily or force a queasy smile instead of confronting the problem.
And I may have to do that in my day-to-day life, but I’ll be damned if I let my hometown baseball team do it to every woman in this town.
The River Cats need to drop the misogynistic, derogatory and offensive rebrand, or face the music — and it won’t be a pipe organ playing “Take Me Out To The Ballgame.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2025 at 9:42 AM.
