I love imitations and impersonations.

I really do.

Good ones make you laugh, possibly even hard. I can do some myself, including that of former Browns head coach Sam Rutigliano. If he knew that, then he would be the one laughing. I also do a decent one of the late, great Gib Shanley, who was the radio play-by-play announcer of the Browns for 24 years (1961-84). I grew up listening to him. Ditto for his longtime color analyst, Jim Graner. Shanley got wind of one of my impersonations of him and Graner and told me how accurate it was. High praise, right?

In any event, whether the imitations are good, bad or somewhere in between — and I’ve heard very few bad ones — they are a form of flattery. The person is important enough to be imitated or impersonated.

But two of the best impersonation artists — a whole heckuva lot better than me, to be sure — are, like Shanley, former Browns radio play-by-play announcers and in fact two of the most popular Cleveland sports media personalities in history in Jim
Donovan and Nev Chandler.

Donovan, who retired recently after 25 years to concentrate fully on his health after an aggressive return of his cancer, does a great imitation of former New York Yankees play-by-play announcer John Sterling and former CBS-TV college football play-by-play announcer Lindsey Nelson.

Chandler, who did Browns games from 1985-93 before passing away from cancer 30 years ago almost to the day on Aug. 8, 1994, was tremendous on his impersonanations of former Browns owner Art Modell and former Cleveland Indians pitcher and later TV color analyst Jim “Mudcat” Grant.

The reporters covering the Browns got a real kick out of listening to both Donovan and Chandler. They sounded like the real thing. It was one of the real joys of the job. I miss that greatly.

Steve King