Stepping Up for Another Shot at the Big Leagues : Radio: Jerry Gross, a former kingpin of Southern California broadcasting, is reaching for the limelight again with a syndicated talk show featuring Pete Rose.

It has been 12 years since Jerry Gross made headlines by unsuccessfully suing his ex-boss, Buzzie Bavasi, former president of the San Diego Padres, accusing him of slander and libel. It’s been even longer since Gross was a kingpin of Southern California sports broadcasting, the hot-shot, play-by-play announcer, the flamboyant and controversial sports reporter battling the Establishment for KFMB-TV (Channel 8).

The days when he would reel off a scathing commentary about the owner of the Chargers one night and fly off to do a play-by-play job for CBS the next seem long ago.

Now the twists and turns of Gross’ career have landed him at a small radio station, WIND, in West Palm Beach, Fla., where he produces and co-hosts “Talk Sports With Pete Rose,” a syndicated talk show. The program, which debuted in March, is carried on 21 stations in Florida through a distribution deal with the Florida Radio Network--a deal Gross arranged. The program recently was picked up by WABC in New York.

Gross and Rose first met in 1963, when Gross was the fresh-faced, play-by-play announcer for the St. Louis Cardinals and Rose was a rookie second baseman for the Cincinnati Reds.

Now the once-hot sportscaster and the baseball-legend-turned-ex-con are a team, both hoping to use the show to return to mainstream acceptance.

The peaks and valleys of Gross’ broadcasting career may not have achieved the notoriety of Rose’s rise and fall from hero to gambler, but there is a similar soap-opera quality to it.

Gross flirted with the big time, but never quite managed to get over the hump. In recent years, his career has focused on arranging local radio broadcasts for a Division II college, United States International University, and occasional free-lance announcing.

“My problem was I talked with my heart instead of my head,” the 59-year-old Gross said in a recent interview.

By the time he was 30, Gross had established himself as a top play-by-play announcer. His resume includes national jobs with ABC, ESPN and CBS. His voice--clear and crisp in a slightly higher register than the baritones of radio sports--earned him some of the best jobs: the Chargers, Padres, USC football, the St. Louis Cardinals and other top teams.

Still, his career is best characterized by incidents.

One of his more famous brouhahas came in 1973, when the late Gene Klein, then owner of the Chargers, revoked Gross’ press credentials. Klein was infuriated that Gross had suggested on the air that Klein was lying to the public. Eventually, his credentials were restored. And a few years later, Klein hired Gross to do play-by-play on Chargers radio broadcasts, Gross points out.

“The problem with Jerry is he’s the type of guy you could invite to dinner and he would sit down and order the wine without being asked,” said Rick Smith, who worked as a sportswriter for the San Diego Tribune and later “rolled in the dirt a few times” with Gross as public relations director for the Chargers.

“When I was a sportswriter I enjoyed him, and when I was a PR guy it was less enjoyable,” said Smith, now public relations director for the Los Angeles Rams. “I respect Jerry--he’s a battler.”

In 1975, after three years of public squabbling with sports and television executives, Gross was fired from Channel 8. Among other reasons for his dismissal, surveys were cited that showed Gross was extremely well known and extremely disliked by large groups of San Diego residents.

“I never had any problems with the fans,” Gross said.

After leaving Channel 8, he found many doors closed to him, and in 1980 he accused former Padres President Bavasi of intentionally hindering his career. It was not a Phi Beta Kappa move, he now admits.

During the trial, accusations flew back and forth. At one crucial point, baseball legend Duke Snider, who had worked with Gross in the Padres broadcasting booth, testified that he quit because of Gross’ abrasive behavior, including his flirting with “baseball Annies,” the women who follow around teams.

Gross lost the case.

After the trial, Gross’ career in San Diego slowly dried up. He decided to focus more on producing, and at first found success. Among other deals, he put together television packages for USC football and basketball.

For 11 years, he controlled the television facilities at the San Diego Sports Arena. The arrangement didn’t win him many friends with broadcast companies, which had to work through Gross’ company to book crew and equipment for broadcasts out of the arena.

The deal with the arena was a product of his long-term relationship with Peter Graham, the controversial Canadian who owned the lease to the building. Graham was regularly flogged by the local media for his handling of the arena. Gross the sportscaster was always a big supporter of Graham.

“Nobody gave (Graham) a break because he was abrasive,” Gross said, acknowledging that a similar statement could have been made about himself.

In 1986, after Graham sold the lease, Gross lost the Sports Arena franchise.

Last summer, soon after Rose got out of prison after serving a sentence for tax evasion, Gross approached his representatives about a radio deal. Banned from baseball and looking for ways to get his life together, Rose committed to the project for at least two years.

Gross is the executive producer, part owner and official sidekick for the program. They’ve had no problem attracting the biggest names in sports for interviews, from Mickey Mantle to Tom Landry.

“(Jerry) and I together, there are not too many celebrities we can’t get on the show,” Rose said.

Rose and partners plan to open a sports cafe in Boca Raton, which will serve as the home base for the show.

To Gross, the program is a chance to “realize more of a financial reward than anything I’ve done 30 years in the business.”

By all accounts, the events of the last 10 years seem to have had an impact on Gross.

“I find Jerry’s a different personality now,” his old antagonist Bavasi told the San Diego Reader in 1987. “Sometimes Jerry used to be his own worst enemy, but I think he realizes now he needs people.”

Gross recently became a grandfather for the first time, and he and his wife, Gretchen, are celebrating their 36th year together.

He sounds far different than the old Jerry Gross. There will be no negatives with the show, he says, only positives.

“This show has given me a chance to enter another phase of my life, and for (Rose) to enter another phase of his life as well,” Gross said.