We always say at Browns Daily Dose that you’re going to read something here that you’re not going to see anywhere else. That’s the beauty of the website.

And so it is today.

If you’re coming here to read something about the Browns‘ game against the Baltimore Ravens on Sunday at Huntington Bank Field, then you’re in the wrong place. There will be none of that here. I can’t in good conscience write about a game that involved a Browns team that, at 1-6and with a five-game losing streak, is being so poorly coached and mismanaged that it’s beyond belief. We’re not going to beat that dead horse today. We’ll wait for tomorrow. 

Indeed, the story — the real story — is not that game, but the loss of longtime Browns radio play-by-play announcer Jim Donovan. He, of course, died Saturday at the age of 68 after a 25-year battle with cancer.

So here we go.

Gib Shanley.

Nev Chandler.

Jim Donovan.

That’s the great lineage of Browns radio play-by-play announcers. They have all been outstanding. When they were working, they might’ve been the best radio play-by-play announcers in the NFL at the time. They are at least certainly on the shortlist thereof.

Which one was the best, though? It’s kind of like asking who is better, DiMaggio, Williams or Mays?

In this conversation, I will say Donovan.

Why?

He was the only one who was not an Ohio native. Shanley was from Shadyside, along the Ohio River in the east central portion of the state, and Chandler was from Rocky River, just west of Cleveland.

In fact, Chandler grew up listening to Shanley calling the games. Their styles were very similar, which was a good thing, because that’s a style that is easy to listen to, easy to understand and easy to follow, especially in the times back in the day with Shanley, when only the road games were televised. So you needed to get a visual picture of what was going on, and Shanley and Chandler certainly did that.

Jim, however, was from Boston. In fact, he came to Cleveland 40 years ago as a Boston guy through and through. He went to Boston University, was a huge Bruins fan and got his first professional broadcasting job being the radio play-by-play man of the Vermont Reds, who, are now the Akron RubberDucks, ironically.

But it was Donovan who made the biggest impact of the three men on Northeast Ohio by trying to get himself involved with, and to understand, the region. Jim would always talk to me about traveling around the Summit County and Medina county areas on Friday nights as his daughter, Meghan, who was in the marching band at Highland High School, performed  at football games. He loved going into those communities for the games and seeing the people and would always talk to somebody in the media who is from those areas to find out what those communities and schools were like. There was never a bad place in Northeast Ohio to him. He liked them all. And he really loved the people. 

Actually, it seemed that Jimmy was almost as happy going out and seeing those areas and getting to know those people as he was calling Browns games. Well, maybe not exactly as much, but pretty close anyway.

Those people looked at him as being this iconic broadcaster, and they were taken aback at how much he enjoyed talking to them. He was very, very approachable, very friendly and very much a gentleman in every sense of the word.

So, if you think being the play-by-play for the Browns or any team in any area in any pro or college sport involves getting involved in the community, and that it is an important part of the equation, and I certainly believe that it is, those were things in which Donovan really stood out and had edge over Gib and Nev. 

With that, then, those who don’t follow the Browns and wouldn’t know a football if it hit them in the head, the loss of Jim Donovan pierces the soul. With all due respect to Andrew Siciliano, who is handling the play-by-play of the Browns this year in Jim’s absence and hopefully will be given a job on a permanent basis after this season, because he is very good, you don’t really replace Jim Donovan. You just get somebody else to do the job.

Jim was that good, he was that special and he was loved that much.

Yes, we all knew it — Donovan’s passing — was coming and it was coming quick, and of course you’ve been reading it everywhere. But that’s not the story. The story remains, still, that it happened, and when it does happen, it is a jolt. Northeast Ohio is under a period of mourning and we remain so for a while.

The days ahead will not be easy, but we have our memories of him. And they are so special, just as he was.

God bless you, Jim Donovan, for coming to our home area and embracing us. We hope you knew how much we embraced you.

Steve King