Social media widely condemned an Atlanta Braves broadcast team who turned a fan interview into a pick-up scheme during the team’s game against the Toronto Blue Jays.
Braves sideline reporter Wiley Ballard was interviewing two women in the crowd at Toronto’s Rogers Centre on Monday, April 14 when his broadcast colleagues began encouraging him to get the women’s numbers.
Ballard, who works for FanDuel Sports Network, initially concluded his interview with the women — who said their names were Lauren and Kayla — by saying he was “gonna go to work here” while the play-by-play announcers got back to the game.
“Okay, Wiley, you’ve got four innings to get the numbers,” Braves announcer Brandon Gaudin told Wiley, according to a video of the interview shared on social media.
“Alright, so they want me to get your number,” Ballard then told the women, pulling out his phone.
The women, who could not hear Ballard’s colleagues egging him on, responded with suspicion: “They want you to get my number?” the woman named Lauren replied.
“I’m dead serious!” Ballard responded, pointing to his ear piece. “She doesn’t believe me. She thinks I’m making this up. Even if you guys weren’t…I might use that in the future, that’s actually a pretty good move.”
The Braves broadcast analyst C.J. Nitkowski then joked that men should walk around baseball stadiums with a microphone and an earpiece and ask for women’s phone numbers. “This might be the new move,” he said.
Many sports reporters later took to social media to slam Wiley and the Braves broadcast crew for the stunt.
“This is one of the most insanely inappropriate things I’ve ever seen. Like I legitimately cannot believe it’s real,” CBS MLB editor Katie Feldman posted.
“Imagine if a female reporter did anything like this. Career over,” Washington Post sports reporter Chelsea Janes wrote. “Pretty brutal to see it glorified by the broadcast.”
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Dallas Morning News baseball reporter Evan Grant wrote that the situation showed “it’s not the same for both sexes,” adding that the incident was “inherently wrong.”
“If a female sideline/dugout reporter did this‚ she’d be called horrible names and probably be run out of town,” Grant wrote.
Others defended Ballard, who took to social media to celebrate getting the woman’s number by posting a meme from Good Will Hunting.
“Example #28495 why men get away with the bottom of the barrel content because misogyny is alive and well in sports television,” CBS Detroit sports anchor Rachel Hopmayer added. “A woman could never and would never without losing their job over this. Lazy, disappointing, offensive, grimey, I could go on. Yikes all around.”
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