There are a few ways to remember Douglas McLearen.
As the red-headed punk with a fist raised in the front row at the forefront of the punk movement. Doug’s first concert was David Bowie in 1975 and over the course of the next 48 years, he likely attended more concerts than anyone you’ve ever known. These hundreds of concerts included frequent nights at the famed CBGB’s and Max’s Kansas City, sneaking backstage with legends like the Ramones. Doug was the punk who never backed down from a fight and always found his way to the front row.
As the diehard New York Yankee fan who believed a real fan should “never get off the boat.” Doug always stuck it out until the bottom of the ninth because he knew it was never over, until it was over. He was there through the drought years of the 1980s and for some of the most important Yankee moments over the last half-century. There, too, he scouted out and somehow always found the best seats in the house. Doug swore “a hotdog at the stadium is better than a steak at The Ritz.” He wasn’t sure what “The Ritz” was but it sounded fancy.
