An Atlanta Braves sideline reporter is being criticized for asking for a woman’s phone number during Monday’s game with the Toronto Blue Jays.
At one point during the game, Wiley Ballard briefly interviewed two attendees, Lauren and Kayla, who were at the rooftop patio at the Rogers Centre in Toronto.
After a few questions, Braves play-by-play announcer Brandon Gaudin joked to Ballard on air that he had “five innings, four innings to get the numbers.”
Ballard relayed that message to the women, and told them that his colleagues said to ask for their numbers.
“They want you to get my number?” she asked, to which Ballard responded, “I’m dead serious. They’re saying in my ear right now,” before telling his colleagues in the booth that she didn’t believe him.
“She didn’t believe me because she thinks you guys are — I’m making this up,” Ballard explained to Gaudin and Braves color commentator C.J. Nitkowski.
He then realized the move might have applications in the future.
“Even if you guys weren’t — I might use that in the future. That’s actually a pretty good move,” he said.
Nitkowski then acknowledged “the best part of this right now is that Wiley could totally be faking it,” and suggested that walking around a ballpark with a microphone and an earpiece “might be the new move.”
“I should’ve thought of this years ago,” said Ballard, who actually got Lauren’s number, as the video below shows.
The segment has since gone viral, and Ballard commented on it on his X page using an image from the scene in “Good Will Hunting” where Matt Damon brags about getting a girl’s phone number.
HuffPost reached out to the Braves for comment, but no one immediately responded.
However, many people on social media weren’t impressed by Ballard’s very public pick-up technique, with some calling it “unprofessional.”
Others pointed out the double standard that would happen if a female reporter did the same thing.
