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Not so Rosy conversation Fans, players upset over NBC interview with Hit King
Posted: Tuesday October 26, 1999 01:49 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Despite an outpouring of sympathy for Pete Rose, the NBC correspondent who conducted a combative interview about gambling with the fallen baseball star said Monday he has nothing to apologize for. NBC's Jim Gray said his questions during a prime-time show before Sunday's World Series game shouldn't have surprised Rose since other reporters had asked the same things at a news conference less than an hour earlier. "I don't apologize," Gray told reporters on Monday. "I stand by it and I think it was absolutely a proper line of questioning." The interview came moments after Rose was announced as a member of baseball's All-Century team. He received the longest ovation of any baseball hero introduced at Atlanta's Turner Field -- longer even than Atlanta Braves legend Henry Aaron, baseball's all-time home run leader. It was another indication that fans seem willing to forgive Rose, banned for life from the sport for gambling. Rose has never admitted to gambling on baseball, and didn't again when asked by Gray on Sunday. Rose told Gray he was "surprised you're bombarding me like this" on a festive occasion. Switchboards at NBC affiliates across the country were bombarded by phone calls from people angry at Gray -- two hours nonstop at WLWT in Cincinnati, where Rose collected most of his Major League record 4,256 hits for the hometown Reds. In an e-mail message to The Associated Press, one fan wrote of being enraged that Rose was "blindsided" during what should have been a proud moment, and said it gives the press a bad name. "I hope NBC buys a collar and leash for the bulldog," the writer said. New York Yankees catcher Jim Leyritz said the questioning was "barbaric" and said he had confronted Gray about it. Gray said Leyritz never spoke to him and neither did any other Yankee, to his face. "We were pretty much all disgusted with Jim," said Yankees outfielder Darryl Strawberry. "It was a night of celebration for Pete Rose. Every player who ever plays cares about Pete Rose. It was embarrassing. It didn't sit too well in this clubhouse." Yankees manager Joe Torre said it was uncalled for. "For some reason, we've lost sight of the word 'respect.' We deal too much in shock value." Gray's colleague, NBC analyst Joe Morgan, a teammate of Rose's with the Cincinnati Reds, was careful not to place the blame on either person. "I was cringing and hoping that Pete would have the right answers," Morgan said. "I was just hoping the interview would be over the next second." But critics were tough on Gray. Phil Mushnick of the New York Post called it a "mugging," while Bob Raissman of the New York Daily News said it was a case of a reporter "trying to become the moment and make himself bigger than the game." Others leapt to Gray's defense. "I thought it was the best TV interview I've ever seen," said Murray Chass, baseball writer for The New York Times. "It was appropriate. It was not overdone. Rose has put himself in position to be pressed like that." John Dowd, the investigator whose 1989 probe of Rose led to the ban, said he tipped his hat to Gray. "I thought he had more guts than any guy I've ever seen," Dowd said. Former baseball Commissioner Fay Vincent said Gray knows how overwhelming the evidence is against Rose. "For Pete to just stand there and look Jim Gray in the eye and deny he bet on baseball, it's obviously a challenge that any interviewer can't let go. I recognize it was aggressive, but Rose was aggressive." Gray won a Sports Emmy in 1998 for sideline reporting after his relentless interview of Mike Tyson following the "Bite Fight" with Evander Holyfield. He said he thought it was the proper time for Rose to address questions about why he had been banned from baseball. "I tried very hard to be very fair to Pete last night and I think I was very fair," Gray said. "The fact that he doesn't like it doesn't mean it wasn't fair." Gray said Rose, who he has interviewed more than 50 times in his career, didn't appear angry when the camera switched off, but remarked that he knew the interview was going to be all about gambling.
"I felt I did my job and I did my job well but it wasn't a satisfying feeling to walk away from that," he said.
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