RHONE: Why Braves reporter Wiley Ballard’s antics were a ‘swing and a miss’

When Ballard asked a question that amounts to the equivalent of “Do you come here often?” Lauren said she comes once a year to visit but isn’t really a Braves fan.

Perhaps to infuse a bit of interest into what amounted to an otherwise lackluster interview, Braves play-by-play announcers Brandon Gaudin and C.J. Nitkowski chimed in from the broadcast booth.

“OK, Wiley, you’ve got 5 innings to get the numbers,” Gaudin said. “Give us some more Braves fans.”

Ballard relays the request to the women. Lauren doesn’t believe him.

“They want you to get my number …” she says, emphasis on “they.”

At that point, it’s hard to hear anything else Lauren says because the guys are busy bloviating about how awesome it would be to use that as a pickup line in the future.

Ballard then announces he has the digits and all is well.

But all is not well on social media as the clip goes viral and the public chimes in on whether Ballard acted unprofessionally or was just engaging in a harmless shtick for TV.

I called this insider baseball because most of the people who were upset about Ballard’s antics were other journalists, not fans, and that makes sense.

Fans are there for the entertainment; not for the journalistic ethos.

So let me share why some journalists, and in particular, some female journalists, might be a bit annoyed with Ballard and the crew right now.

In 2021, a report from the University of Central Florida estimated only 14.4% of professional sports reporters across 100 nationwide outlets were women.

Women spend an inordinate amount of time in newsrooms trying to be taken seriously. I’ve never been a sports reporter but I imagine that dynamic is only magnified for women who find themselves reporting from the sidelines of events dominated by men both on and off the field.

These women are bound to an entirely different standard than men when it comes to the environments in which they work.

I didn’t see many comments about Ballard’s appearance. No one mentioned his blue Oxford layered under a quarter-zip sweater and if that made him a quality candidate for a date. But undoubtedly, if a female reporter had been mixing it up with male fans in a similar manner, there would be a full rundown of her outfit, her makeup, her hairstyle and more. This happens to female sports reporters even when they aren’t engaging male fans on live TV.

If this had been a woman asking a male fan for his number, the commentary at some point would also have included questions about the reporter’s character and whether or not she was worthy of the guy she was hitting on — or if he was worthy of her.

The exchange and the subsequent debate sent a few sports fans searching for moments when female reporters hit on male fans.

One fan turned up a 20-year-old clip of former Victoria’s Secret model and Fox Sports reporter Marisa Miller seemingly hitting on Aaron Rodgers during a 2005 interview after the future Green Bay Packers player had been praised for his performance at the 2005 College Football All-Star Challenge.

What really happened in that clip was Rodgers giving Miller a sly smile, telling her and the cameras how happy he was to be there hanging out with her.

There is a reason it is so hard to find an equivalent to the Ballard video with a role reversal. It probably hasn’t happened and, if it has happened, it definitely wasn’t on camera.

We can view this whole episode as all in good fun — Ballard sure did when he later posted a meme from “Good Will Hunting,” the scene when Will (aka Matt Damon) successfully gets the number of a woman pursued by another character and flaunts it by asking, “How you like them apples?”

Ballard ended the live segment by saying: “I am speechless. I got the number. We’re good.”

I’m speechless, too, because so many people refuse to acknowledge the double standard that continues to confront women in male-dominated careers.

I like apples, but those are pretty rotten.

Read more on the Real Life blog at www.ajc.com/opinion/real-life-blog/ and find Rhone on Facebook at www.facebook.com/AJCRealLifeColumn and X @nrhoneajc. You can also email her at nedra.rhone@ajc.com.