NBC interviewer Marv Albert, responding to charges...

NBC interviewer Marv Albert, responding to charges by Jim Rice of the Boston Red Sox that he asked only negative questions during a nationally televised interview, said another approach would have made the program “a jerky show.”

“I know he wasn’t happy, but I don’t know what he’d expect to be asked,” Albert said of last Saturday’s pregame interview.

Rice, who had a shoving match with Manager Joe Morgan earlier this season, lost patience when Albert brought up the player’s recent failure to answer a curtain call after a home run at Fenway Park.