Real Crime Is the Reaction Against Gray

Mercifully, the New York Yankees wrapped up the World Series in four games, which means the Jim Gray lynch mob can now douse the torches, put away the pitchforks, take down the Web site and go home to retool for its next project, the abolition of the First Amendment.

Nothing NBC’s Gray asked Pete Rose during his fateful Sunday night interview was half as disturbing as the frenzied, frothing national reaction to it. Because he had the temerity to ask a fallen baseball hero a few tough questions on live television moments after said hero had been feted in a contrived, credit card-sponsored, feel-good pregame ceremony, Gray was vilified as if he had been caught selling nuclear secrets to the Chinese.

Newspapers were swamped with venom-spewing letters denouncing Gray as a “skulker,” “coward,” “little weasel” and worse.

A “Fire Jim Gray and Apologize to Pete Rose Boycott Web Site” was constructed, apparently within seconds after Gray sent it back up to the booth.

Media critics and sports columnists, with nothing else to write about on Monday’s day off between Games 2 and 3--bad timing there, Jim--lambasted Gray. Or, in extreme cases, demanded nothing less than a piece of Gray’s anatomy.

(One columnist fantasized about Rose throwing Gray through a plate-glass window. Another wrote that if he had been Rose, he “would have punched Gray’s lights out.”)

And what, exactly, was Gray guilty of?

For asking Rose some pointed questions about his ban from baseball?

Gray was merely doing his job. The same questions had been asked, off camera, at a news conference for print media moments earlier.

For ruining Pete’s big night?

Sorry, but tossing Rose petals at his subject’s feet is not a part of Gray’s job description.

For pushing too long with a line of questioning that was failing to nudge Rose out of his decade-long stance of denial?

There you have it. That was Gray’s big crime: He didn’t ad-lib well enough. He got emotionally involved in the interview when the answers weren’t going his way, when he needed to remain detached. He kept pressing Rose when, as any Journalism 101 student will tell you, the proper tack was to change gears and shift the interview in another direction.

So Gray was overzealous.

It happens, and has happened, in countless locker rooms throughout the decades, especially under the crunch of deadline, with a producer yelling in your ear, “Wrap it up in 20 seconds!”

It is called journalism, and it isn’t always pretty. But it’s the way information is extracted and gathered on a daily basis. Gray made the mistake of engaging Rose in a contentious exchange in front of millions of viewers who have never witnessed the reporter-athlete dynamic inside the clubhouse. For those viewers, this was a rare glimpse of journalism in the raw--and you know what they say about a little knowledge being dangerous.

BLAME AHMAD

Gray also made two other critical mistakes:

1. He didn’t have many allies within the national sporting media, traditionally quick to close ranks when a brother or sister is attacked.

Gray is not well-liked by his peers; many see him as a spoiled rich kid (Gray’s father was a business partner of oil billionaire Marvin Davis) obsessed with his own career advancement. You can spot the buzzwords in the reviews that have been written about Gray:

“Self-absorbed.” “Self-promoter.” “Grandstanding.”

Consequently, Gray had precious few friends willing to come to his defense once the fallout began to rain down on him. No doubt, the media response would have been kinder had a popular, respected colleague--say, Bob Costas or ESPN’s Dan Patrick--conducted the Rose interview in a similar tone.

2. Gray happens to be plying his trade during an era dominated by Ahmad Rashad and the Traveling Softball All-Stars.

In fact, Rashad and the rest of the sideline/roving sycophants are the real villains in this sordid affair. By treating the locker room interview as a starry-eyed, flirtatious brush with greatness (“MJ, how does it feel to be the best of all-time, and when is our dinner reservation tonight?”), they have conditioned television viewers to think that this is the model, the way TV sports journalism ought to proceed. Viewers have been fed so much pablum, been served up so many softballs over the years, that when they actually come across a provocative interview, with real questions, they are horrified.

Can you believe that Jim Gray? He made the great Pete Rose--and, worst of all, us--uncomfortable.

All told, the Gray-Rose episode should have been wrapped up in half a day, max. They did the interview, what do we all think of the interview, all right, then, let’s move on to Game 3, shall we?

Instead, the teeth-gnashing dragged on through Wednesday night’s World Series finale, overshadowing Roger Clemens’ first World Series championship, the unhittable excellence of Mariano Rivera and the supposed “Battle to Be Named Team of the Decade.”

Gray’s ultimate mistake was working a World Series so dull, so utterly devoid of drama, that he became immersed in the biggest (only?) suspense it could manage.

Not “Will the Yankees sweep Atlanta this year?”

But “Will the Yankees talk to NBC’s roving reporter tonight?”

IN BRIEF

With play in the PGA’s Tour Championship suspended today so golfers can attend Payne Stewart’s memorial service, ESPN will air a three-hour “Tribute to Payne Stewart,” beginning at noon PDT. The show will include live coverage of the memorial service. . . . ESPN will introduce a technological toy it is calling the “SuperStrator” on its Sunday night telecast of the Tampa Bay-Detroit NFL game. According to Jed Drake, ESPN vice president in charge of remote production, the SuperStrator is an improvement over the “now-antique telestrator” which will enable analyst Joe Theismann to diagram receiver routes and highlight individual players before the ball is snapped with on-the-field lines similar to the electronically enhanced first-down yellow stripe.

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What Los Angeles Is Watching

A sampling of L.A. Nielsen ratings for Oct. 23-24, including sports on cable networks:

SATURDAY

Over-the-air

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Channel Rating Share Baseball: World Series Game 1 4 12.3 26 College football: Stanford-USC 7 6.6 18 College football: UCLA-Oregon State 9 2.8 7 College football: Miami-Boston College 2 2.1 6 College football: Tennessee-Alabama 2 2.1 6

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Cable

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Network Rating Share College football: Ohio State-Minnesota ESPN 1.8 5 Golf: PGA National Car Rental Classic ESPN 1.8 5 Boxing: Mike Tyson-Orlin Norris Show 1.6 3 College football: Oregon-Arizona FSW 1.3 2 College football: Florida State-Clemson ESPN 1.2 3 Golf: Senior PGA Kaanapali Classic ESPN 0.8 2 College football: Michigan State-Wisconsin ESPN2 0.6 2 College football: Kansas State-Oklahoma State FSW2 0.4 1 College football: Colorado State-Wyoming ESPN2 0.4 1 Auto racing: NASCAR Busch Grand National TNN 0.3 1 Horse racing: Oak Tree FSW2 0.2 1

*--*

SUNDAY

Over-the-air

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Channel Rating Share Baseball: World Series Game 2 4 15.2 25 Pro football: N.Y. Jets-Oakland 2 12.4 29 Pro football: San Francisco-Minnesota 11 8.9 23 Pro football: Denver-New England 2 7.2 18 Golf: PGA National Car Rental Classic 7 3.2 8 Figure skating: ISU World Super Teams Challenge 11 3.0 7 Pro basketball: Lakers-Miami 9 1.8 4 Hockey: Boston-Mighty Ducks 9 1.2 2

*--*

Cable

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Network Rating Share Hockey: San Jose-Kings FSW 1.2 2 Rodeo: PRCA Tour ESPN2 0.6 1 Soccer: Galaxy-Colorado ESPN 0.5 1 Auto racing: NASCAR Winston Cup TNN 0.5 1 Gymnastics: World Championships ESPN 0.5 1 Auto racing: NHRA Nationals ESPN2 0.5 1 Golf: Nike Tour Championship FSW 0.4 1 Horse racing: Oak Tree FSW2 0.4 1

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WEEKDAY RATINGS: Monday--Pro football: Atlanta-Pittsburgh, Channel 7, 16.7/29.

Note: Each rating point represents 50,092 L.A. households. Cable ratings reflect the entire market, even though cable is in only 63% of L.A. households.