Well Tim, I have not seen a single announcer that knows the rules in any sport. So why would you expect something of special from Reynolds? We could be talking about Bill Walton, John Madden or Alexei Lawless (sp?) and the result is the same. None of them know the rules like the officials and none of them can explain them either.

Peace

so you really havent seen/heard steve stone?

im not a hockey guy, but isnt barry melrose a pretty good hockey guy? i could be wrong.

Stop being a Cub fan. Steve Stone did not walk on water and he was not always right when it came to rules. He was right about many things, but he was not anymore than a former player that commented on something he never had experience doing.

I am not a big hockey fan and I do not understand hockey rules to even comment on how good Melrose is when it comes to hockey rules. I am sure hockey officials feel the same way about him when he comments on rules.

Peace

Jay Bilas is awesome with basketball. Opposite dickie V for sure.

I'd say the best baseball guy as far as rules would have to be... NOBODY!

None of them know it. My guess is Gammons might know it, but isn't in the color commentator role enough. Some of their baseball tonight guys are probably knowledgable as well.

Certainly not Jeff Brantley.

Jay Bilas? Jay Bilas goes on rants about calls and talks about plays he obviously knows nothing about. I will say he is probably one of the better guys that can talk a rule or two, but he is wrong more often than he ever is right about something. At least Dickie V talks about how hard it is to be an official and gives the guys some credit. Bilas will go on and on about what he thinks is a bad call.

Peace

At least Brantley knew the pitcher didn't need to come to a stop when throwing to first base, which Sean McDunnagh (sp?) thought was the rule.

Bilas backs up officials more often than not, and knows rules. He's honest and not biased towards Duke like Dickie V (and I'm a Duke fan). He tells viewers what is actually happening and does so fairly and unbiasedly, unlike other announcers. And he knows rules.

You must have never really listened to Bilas during the NCAA tournament. He rants about calls he does not understand but the average official clearly understands. He quotes rules but does not understand the complete context in which the rules apply or the other rules that might apply as well. Either you are not a basketball official, or you have never actually listened to Bilas and his rants. He is clueless like the rest of the commentators, he just quotes rules better.

Peace

Sean is the worst of them all. (Aside: Sean is the son of Will McDonaugh (sp?)...the longtime NFL beat writer for the Boston Globe and sideline reporter for NFL on NBC back in the 80's and 90's. Will died 2 years ago.)

Anyways, Sean followed dad into journalism...only as an on-air announcer rather than print journalist. Sean worked his way up to calling Red Sox games as the local TV play-by-play guy. When CBS got the MLB national contract, he was their #1 play-by-play guy....he called the World Series' in the early 90's on CBS.

Sean is awful...it doesn't matter what sport he announces, he will go in a rage about the officiating. (I mean he sounds like he's a coach going ballistic on an official.) It doesn't matter if its hockey, baseball or college basketball he simply can not do a single game without commenting on the poor officiating.

One night, during a Red Sox broadcast, he said (and I'll never forget it): "three of these guys on this crew better be glad that these umpires are tenured, or they'd all be out of a job." Which we (me and other pro umps sitting in the bar watching this game) thought was hilarious because these guys were three of the most respected (by their colleagues) umpires in the game.

He's totally clueless. He's so bad, that my grandfather (who is no umpire...rather he was an American Legion coach for 40+ years) will watch the game on TV, but turn down the volume and listen to the game on the radio.

As an aside, Peter Gammons, another Boston product does not have a lot of love coming his way from the MLB boys.