ROSE INTERVIEW STILL A GRAY AREA.

Byline: Tom Hoffarth Media

Jim Gray, whom NBC continues to value as a reporter even though he has made a career out of doing nothing more than act as an awkward twit with a microphone, basically did the same thing Monday that Pete Rose did to him the night before.

He wouldn't admit he was sorry, because he didn't think he did anything wrong.

How ironic.

``We can all go back and `woulda, coulda, shoulda,' but basically I think my approach was the way to go and I don't apologize for it,'' Gray told writers on a conference call set up by NBC in response to the mostly harsh criticism directed at him for the live sparring session he had with Rose after the All-Century team celebration Sunday night in Atlanta.

For those who didn't catch it: Gray, usually assigned by the network to stand in front of a coach, athlete or injured mascot and allow him or her to embellish on the emotions of the moment, decided to try to do a 30-minute interview in a 2-1/2-minute time frame.

Guess what? It didn't work.

Gray asked Rose five different ways if he wanted to ``make contrition'' for his alleged gambling on baseball 10 years ago that led to a lifetime ban. Rose didn't feel like going to confession. Then repeatedly, and probably to his detriment, he continued to deny he did anything wrong and began counterprodding Gray.

Rose finally ended it by telling Gray he was ``surprised you're bombarding me with . . . something that happened 10 years ago'' and said this was ``a prosecutor's brief, not an interview.''

Given a chance Monday to respond to the interview backlash, Gray contended that his ego did not get in the way of the moment, nor was he trying to agitate the all-time hits leader.

``I have no agenda against Pete Rose,'' said Gray, who admits to having interviewed him as many as 50 times without incident. ``I was simply asking questions. Pete was the one who took exception and started asking me to respond to his questions. And if I let that go, all of you (writers) would have had me on this call for a much different reason.''

Yes, probably to thank you. For allowing an old story to rest.

If there's a time and place for that line of questioning, neither were appropriate Sunday night as the All-Century team was leaving the field and the second game of the World Series was about to begin.

This was easy: Just grab Rose for a reaction to the crowd. Instead, he put on his Roy Firestone costume and started hosting ``Up Close with Jim Gray.'' If Gray expected Rose to suddenly see the light - maybe even cry - he was sorely mistaken.

``I thought he might have a change of heart,'' Gray said naively.

So, when Rose obviously wouldn't, why didn't he go in another direction with the questions?

``We deal with limited time,'' Gray explained. ``Who knows how he might have answered that, but I had to use my judgment to get to some of the heart of the issues. Asking him how he felt to stand next to Brooks Robinson didn't seem like a useful portion of the time.''

The response from baseball and its fans to the interview has been strangely mixed. John Dowd, the Washington lawyer hired to investigate Rose's reported gambling, told the Associated Press that he thought Gray ``had more guts than any guy I've ever seen,'' while former baseball commissioner Fay Vincent said ``Gray really knows the story, he knows the evidence is all over.''

Sunday night, however, hundreds of viewers phoned NBC's switchboard to complain about Gray's interrogating ways. Monday, a reporter told Gray that someone had put up an Internet Web site calling for his resignation.

Gray, who hasn't realized he was used a pawn to spite the L.A. media about 10 years ago when then-Rams All-Pro Eric Dickerson gave the no-name dweeb the ``scoop'' that he'd been traded to Indianapolis, said he doesn't feel used in this case.

After 45 minutes of a conference call with writers in which he took long pauses before answering questions put to him, Gray said he just felt strange.

``Hey, look, it's a shame it came out this way, no question about it,'' said Gray. ``It wasn't a satisfying feeling to walk away from that. But Pete had the opportunity to at least open the door further to get reinstated or at least have more dialogue with the commissioner, and he went about it by saying everything that he has over the past 10 years, which isn't going to get him close.

``My intent was to give him the opportunity, and it was provided on a silver platter three or four times. I think Pete ruined his own evening.''

Probably. But it might not have been so bad had Gray just did his usual mundane job and stop the delusional thinking that he is journalist.