
A sports reporter is being called out by fellow journalists over an inappropriate moment during the Atlanta Braves broadcast Monday night when he asked for female fans’ phone numbers on air.
Wiley Ballard, a sideline reporter with FanDuel Sports Network, was interviewing two fans at the rooftop of the Rogers Centre in Toronto during the Braves-Blue Jays game. He asked if they would consider rooting for Atlanta before throwing it back to the broadcast team.
Braves play-by-play announcer Brandon Gaudin, in the booth, then suggested getting both of the women’s phone numbers.
“OK Wiley, you got five innings, four innings to get the numbers,” Gaudin said. “Get us some more Braves fans.”
Ballard then pulled out his phone and told the women he was being asked to get their numbers. It was suggested between Ballard, Gaudin and analyst C.J. Nitkowski that this was a new way to pick up women.
“This might be the new move,” Nitkowski said.
Many other journalists were appalled by the segment and called out the unprofessional moment on social media.
Ralph Vacchiano, an NFL writer for Fox Sports, described it as a standard for harassment and placed blame on all the people involved in the broadcast.
“An unprofessional disgrace, from the reporter, to the guys in the booth, to the producer in the truck who could’ve stopped it at any point,” Vacchiano wrote in a post on X.