Female Sports Reporters Feign Outrage Over Braves Reporter Getting Female Fan's Number | Burack

On Monday night, the booth announcers for the Braves-Blue Jays game on FanDuel Sports Network challenged team reporter Wiley Ballard to get the numbers of two local women whom he interviewed in the stands.

To Ballard's credit, he secured the digits of one of two blondes.

However, the segment enraged several female sports reporters from ESPN and CBS Sports on social media. Who could have guessed? Here are just a few of the whiners:

Luckily, we don't have to imagine if the gender roles were reversed. Speaking of FanDuel Sports Network, morning show anchor Kay Adams has been jokingly flirting on-air with Shams Charania for years.

Adams even playfully asked Charania to have her kids one day: "So when we have kids. No I’m kidding! I’m totally kidding! When you have kids…"

Where was all the pearl-clutching then? Why didn't anyone ask us to imagine if a male anchor flirted with a younger female reporter on air?

Like the Adams' segments with Charania, Ballard asking the woman for her numbers was light-hearted and in good fun. No honest, sane person could actually watch the segment and respond in outrage.

And thus, the most angry commentators are reporters within the sports media. The reporters feigning disgust are trying too hard. They want to be victims too badly.

Notice that none of the top women in the industry—Charissa Thompson, Erin Andrews, or Laura Rutledge—cared enough about the clip to whine about it online. It was only the C-level reporters who screeched. Perhaps a few of them calculate their faux outrage could create a new job opening on the sidelines of local Atlanta Braves games.

Like racism, the insatiable demand for misogyny vastly outstrips the supply – especially in the sports media. That's why it's important never to cave to those who pretend to be unreasonably offended.

That said, we fully expect FanDuel, the broadcasters in the booth, and Ballard to issue a lengthy apology to all those who were affected by the segment.

Let's just hope, for Ballard's sake, that his inevitable cowardice doesn't cost him a date with the girl.