Known for his heavy drinking and violent behavior, McLean's career ended after a 1915 brawl with New York Giants manager John McGraw and team scout Dick Kinsella.

He earned the nickname Larry after the alternate moniker ascribed to Nap Lajoie, a star baseball player who McLean was said to resemble.

[1] In 1901, while McLean and Fred Mitchell were playing for a local team in Saint John, New Brunswick, they were scouted and signed by the fledgling Boston Red Sox.

[3] McLean was known to chew large amounts of Brown's Mule tobacco and was a heavy drinker of corn whiskey.

When he signed with the Portland Beavers of the Pacific Coast League in 1905, he became teammates with a pitcher who also struggled with alcohol use, Ned Garvin.

Baseball author Dennis Snelling said this pitcher-catcher combination formed "one of the most volatile batteries in the history of the game.

His resignation was accepted, although he was later allowed to rejoin the team with the caveats he would play for a reduced salary and would sit out the first week of the regular season.

Chief Meyers was the Giants' primary catcher, but was injured during the 1913 postseason, so McLean played five games in the 1913 World Series.

In his thirteen-year career, McLean posted a .262 batting average, which included six home runs and 298 RBIs in 862 games played.