Ex-con turned now ex-Texas Rangers pitcher blew the second chance his right arm created

Matt Bush’s recovery and redemption were just a few chapters in what is now a sad story, not to mention a waste of the second chance created by his right arm.

Of the many pro athletes who have come through DFW, few were blessed with the God-given ability like the former Texas Rangers relief pitcher. Josh Hamilton is in this discussion. The same for Roy Tarpley. It’s not a coincidence that all of these men had their demons.

On Friday, Oct. 4, Bush was arrested by Arlington police for driving while intoxicated. Bush is likely heading back to prison for the second time in his life.

If anyone on earth should know not to drive drunk, it is Matt Bush. Matt Bush should boast of a 10-star passenger rating on Uber, or Lyft.

Instead, this was just another ugly mark on a resume full of them. Anyone who has met Bush wants these types of incidents well behind him. He’s a nice man, sincere, and ... here he is, unable to get out of his own way. The problem is that inability to get out of his own way keeps putting innocent people in harm’s way.

That’s the problem with a drunk driver.

How the Rangers kept Bush walking the line without falling face first into a sidewalk is one of the more impressive feats accomplished under former team GM Jon Daniels.

According to the police report, law enforcement tried to pull over Bush’s 2023 Lincoln Aviator on Lincoln Parkway on Friday evening because he was driving “erratically.” That can happen when you’re drunk.

Bush didn’t stop, but instead he ran a red light, hit a car which hit two other cars. According to the report, Bush then got out of the car and tried to walk away on foot. People at the scene prevented him from fleeing long enough for the police to detain him.

He was charged with one count of driving while intoxicated; one count of an accident involving injury. One count of evading. One person involved in the accident was taken to the hospital for minor injuries.

This is bad, and it could have been so much worse.

Bush’s latest mug shot is not sad. It’s pathetic. He’s 38, and baseball is over. Now what?

According to people familiar with Bush’s personal life, things haven’t been “going great” in the last 12 months, and they were not totally surprised by this latest development. Saddened, but not shocked.

Bush pitched for the Rangers from 2016 to 2022. He had a career ERA of 3.34 in 177 2/3 innings, and, when he was healthy, he was pretty good. He pitched for the Brewers in 2022 and ‘23, posting a combined 5.94 ERA in those two seasons in Milwaukee.

If you looked hard enough, you may have seen him in the Rangers’ World Series parade last November with the rest of the Rangers alumni who joined the party.

He didn’t play in 2024, and if it wasn’t already over the incident in Arlington ended his pitching career.

Since he was selected with the first overall pick in the 2004 MLB Draft by the San Diego Padres, his life has been loaded with ugly events. Fights. Alcohol. DUIs. Prison.

He never made it to the majors with the Padres, primarily because he was involved in multiple altercations off the field. He was traded to the Blue Jays, where he was involved in another alleged incident where he was accused of throwing a baseball at a woman’s head.

The Blue Jays immediately released him, and he was signed by the Tampa Rays. By the time he was in spring training in 2012, he was successfully making the transition from shortstop to relief pitcher and close to making a major league roster.

Then he went on a bender. Then he got behind the wheel of a car. The he hit a 72-year-old motorcyclist. He drove over the man’s head. The man lived, but he was never the same.

Bush was charged with three felonies, and sentenced to 51 months in prison. He played right field for the prison softball team.

After he was released in the spring of 2015, a Rangers employee found Bush working for a Golden Corral restaurant. The team gave him a tryout in the parking lot, and that started the process of Bush making the major leagues.

“If you’re the biggest bust, you must have been someone,” Bush told HBO’s Real Sports in a profile that now defunct show produced on him in the spring of 2017.

As part of the “rehab” process everyone involved with the Rangers said Bush couldn’t run from his past. He never tried to minimize, or avoid, the topic. He owned all of it.

“It’s nice to be here and give the interviews because it means I’m here. It means I’m in the big leagues,” Bush said in conversation in 2017.

He was smart enough to know he was lucky. That not many people who commit such crimes are granted such opportunities.

That opportunity existed because he could not only throw a baseball 96 m.p.h. but locate it. The talent that gave him that chance is gone.

Now he’s just a guy who got busted for another DUI, and he’s damn lucky this latest incident isn’t as bad as the other one.

Either way, Matt Bush is heading back to prison. When he gets out, baseball won’t be there to save him.