Doug’s baseball career began in Teaneck, New Jersey with the lessons from his brother Ken. With an organized program to baseball success, Ken outlined the key steps to make a major league baseball player. Doug began with Wiffle Ball and passed through an intimate knowledge of the Strat-O-Matic baseball game before arriving at Wrigley Field in 1996 on Ken’s program.

After a solid high school career and All-State honors at Teaneck High School, he told pro scouts to “wait” so that he could embark on a college career at the University of Pennsylvania.  There he was part of two championship teams amongst Academic and Athletic All-America honors as a junior. His college career was capped off by being selected in the first round by the Chicago Cubs in 1991.

His minor league career involved stops in the famous Carolina League as a member of the Winston-Salem Spirits where he hit his only professional Grand Slam. Everything came together in 1995 during winter baseball in Puerto Rico where he won the MVP award for the Mayaguez Indios. Carrying the momentum from that winter to the Cubs minor league season, he was rewarded with his first call-up to the big leagues on June 9th, 1996.