Guy Bush

Guy Terrell Bush (August 23, 1901 – July 2, 1985) was an American right-handed pitcher in Major League Baseball, nicknamed "the Mississippi Mudcat".

Bush played in the major leagues from 1923 to 1938 and again in 1945. The pitcher played for the Chicago Cubs, Pittsburgh Pirates, Boston Bees, St. Louis Cardinals and Cincinnati Reds in his 17-year professional baseball career. He is best known for being the pitcher who allowed Babe Ruth's final two career home runs.

Baseball career

Chicago Cubs Bush was originally drafted and signed by the Chicago Cubs in 1919 for $1,000. After attending the now defunct Tupelo Military Institute in Mississippi, Bush made his major league debut for the team that year on September 17, 1923. In his only game of the season, Bush came in the ninth inning and gave up one hit while striking out two. He returned with the Cubs the following season as a dual-duty starter and reliever. Bush pitched to a 2–5 record in sixteen games, half of which he started. He threw four complete games and finished four others. In 80 innings of work, he gave up 91 hits and 36 earned runs, and struck out 36 batters. In the following few seasons, Bush started to take a larger role as a reliever. Bush led the league in saves in 1925, with four, and again in 1929 when he had eight. Despite giving up 79 walks while only striking out 62 batters, he had a 10–10 record on the year, with a 3.03 ERA. Bush started 22 of his 36 games, including a marathon on May 14, 1927, in which Bush and Boston Braves starter Charlie Robertson duelled for eighteen innings. Bush was most dominant in the 1929 World Series against the Philadelphia Athletics. Bush pitched two games in the series, starting one and relieving another. Bush started Game 3 and pitched a complete game, surrendering only one run on nine hits. Despite the Cubs' loss of the Series in five games, Bush pitched a total of eleven innings with 4 strikeouts and gave up just one run. Bush started Game 4, and lasted less than an inning. He hit Babe Ruth and gave up two hits and one earned run and was plucked from the pitching mound. For the series, Bush finished with a 0–1 record and 14.29 ERA, and gave up nine earned runs in less than six innings of work.

Bush bounced back in 1933, finishing with his first 20-game winning season. He tied with Dizzy Dean and Ben Cantwell for the second most wins in the National League while also ranking among the NL's top ten with four shutouts (4th), 20 complete games (8th), and a 2.75 ERA (9th). Early in the 1933 season, Bush challenged Dizzy Dean to a mid-game fight; in describing their rivalry, Bush declared: “I get more satisfaction out of beating that guy [Dean] once than I do winning from anyone else twice." Bush followed up with another solid season in 1934, his last with the Cubs. On November 22, 1934, just a little over a month after the season, Bush was traded along with outfielder Babe Herman and Jim Weaver to the Pittsburgh Pirates for left-handed pitcher Larry French and future Hall of Famer Freddie Lindstrom, also then playing outfield after spending most of his career at third base.

Guy Bush died at age 83 on July 2, 1985, of cardiac arrest after working in his garden in Shannon, Mississippi.

In popular media Bush was portrayed by actor Richard Tyson in the 1992 Babe Ruth biopic The Babe. The film played up the rivalry between Bush and Ruth.