The Fresno Grizzlies may have proverbially committed an unforced error.

Last year, the team offered a ladies’ night promotion, offering free tickets for females. That led to a lawsuit.

Plaintiffs Harry Crouch and Christine Johnson said providing females free admission violated California sex discrimination laws.

Initially filed last July in Fresno County Superior Court, the class action lawsuit was refiled last month in federal court. The plaintiffs seek $5 million in damages.

Plaintiffs’ attorney Al Rava of San Diego said the “promotion sexualized female fans by seemingly treating them as little more than sexual bait in order to apparently attract men to buy tickets to the game.”

“In doing so, the Grizzlies’ male-dominated front office managed to pull off a  rare trifecta of sex discrimination — misogyny, exorsexism, and misandry all at once — by allegedly treating female, nonbinary, and male fans unequally based solely on their gender,” Rava said.

No Comment From Grizzlies

An initial scheduling conference is set for Oct. 1 in front of U.S. Magistrate Judge Stanley Boone.

“I’m not able to comment at this time,” the team’s marketing manager Jonathan Bravo said. He is also listed individually as a defendant.

Other listed defendants include its current owner DBH Fresno LLC — which completed purchase of the team earlier this year — former owner Fresno Sports and Events LLC, Minor League Baseball, Inc., and Unified Board Operations LLC, a promotions consultant.

Read the federal lawsuit here.

Plaintiff, Attorney Familiar to This Type of Lawsuit

Attorney Rava has made a name for himself, specializing in “ladies’ night”—type lawsuits. He has sued golf instructors, sex stores, and gun ranges.

The Grizzlies aren’t the first baseball team that Rava sued on behalf of his clients. In 2009, the Oakland A’s settled for $500,000 for a Mother’s Day promotion. Noted sports columnist Rick Reilly criticized Rava at the time.

A similar lawsuit against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim was thrown out.

News reports indicate that most defendants in these lawsuits settle. And, NBC 7 in San Diego reported in 2018 that Rava had been involved in at least 300 such suits.

In a 2017 Times of San Diego story, Rava claimed he had a “100 percent” win rate.

The lead plaintiff, Crouch, is listed as president of the National Coalition for Men, a civil rights group. He referred any comment to Rava.

A 2018 New York Times profile said Crouch ” began working in men’s rights after a relationship with an abusive woman led him to seek state funding for a program for abused men. He was told men don’t qualify for such grants, he said.

Most of the legal argument is based on California’s Unruh Civil Rights Act, which basically says that any business that serves the public cannot discriminate on the basis of sex.

The California Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that “ladies’ night” promotions for any business violated state sex-discrimination law.