Being someone who has conducted hundreds of interviews in front of the camera, I have done some pretty embarrassing things. My absolute worst was when I interviewed Paul Stanley from KISS and I accidentally called him Gene Simmons – I wanted to die. But while I may have screwed up a few times in front of the camera in a variety of ways, the one thing I do know how to do right is know the difference between appropriate and inappropriate questions and when it is the time to ask them.

As we all know by now, the biggest hit in the World Series so far this year was not one by Paul O’Neill, or Scott Brosius or even Chad Curtis, it was the one by NBC Announcer Jim Gray to Pete Rose during the interview following the ceremony introducing the All Century Team after Game 2 of the Series.

The media does a delicious job of reminding all of us of everyone’s shortcomings. It doesn’t matter how much someone has accomplished in their career, if they screw up even once, the media clings to it like that stain on your favorite shirt you just can’t get rid of.

Granted, Pete Rose was accused of betting on baseball and it cost him his livelihood. He was banned from baseball and no longer allowed to participate in the sport – basically, he was banned from making a living. Did he screw up? Yes. Should he have been punished? Yes, and he was – severely. But I think any punishment Major League Baseball could have conjured up could not have compared to the punishment inflicted by Gray this week.

Let’s go back for a moment: Pete Rose, one of the greatest players in baseball, gets accused of gambling on baseball and other major sports – even some games that he might have played in – and as a result, gets thrown off the team and out of the sport. No matter what his record was or how good he was for the team, Major League Baseball didn’t care, because to them what he did was inexcusable and to them Pete Rose – and anyone else who might be doing the same thing – needed to be taught a lesson.

For years after his ban, the pleas for lenience by the millions of baseball fans to Major League Baseball went unheard. Almost every year fans would vote Rose into the Hall Of Fame and Major League Baseball would simply ignore the votes. It seemed that the day would never come when Pete Rose would be allowed to walk on a ballfield again – until this week.

For the first time in ten years – which I’m sure felt like ten lifetimes to Rose – the gambling was forgotten and he was simply Baseball’s Great Pete Rose again. To the roar of the fans, Pete Rose was announced as a member of Baseball’s All Century Team. What made Major League Baseball decide to lift their ban is unknown to me, but nonetheless, I applaud them for giving Rose what he deserved, one moment in the spotlight after ten years of darkness.

But you know what they say – between light and dark – there is Gray.

Jim Gray had an opportunity to do something that millions of us would have given our left arm for – the opportunity to interview Pete Rose after he was on a baseball field for the first time in ten years. I had a million questions in my head that I would have asked. “How does it feel to be a member of the All Century Team?” “What do you think of the other members of your ‘team’”? “When you played your first pro game, did you ever think you would have been named one of the sport’s best?” And I’m sure everyone else had the same questions – everyone but Jim Gray.

For one brief shining moment, the fans, the players and even Major League Baseball forgot and forgave what Pete Rose did – and in one brief sorry moment, Jim Gray brought it all back.

I don’t know what was worse, Gray’s question, or his “apology”. Instead of apologizing for “delaying the game” or “bringing down the mood of the evening”, how about apologizing for not asking the right question and for making Pete Rose and the rest of us realize that the only people less forgiving than Major League Baseball are the media.

I wondered what Mike Tyson would have done to Jim Gray if, immediately following his last fight, he asked: “Hey Mike, how does it feel to fight again after raping a girl?”