Matt Bush, who was the first pick of the Major League Baseball draft in 2004, will serve at least three years in prison as part of a plea bargain in his DUI hit-and-run of a motorcyclist case.
Bush’s father, Daniel Bush, told the Tampa Bay Times that his son is prepared for his fate.
“He’s taking it pretty good,” Daniel Bush said, according to the newspaper. “He’s not crying or sulking. He’s preparing for it. Everybody in our family is backing him up.”
In March, court records showed that Bush was driving with a suspended license. when he struck a man on motorcycle while driving in Florida. After hitting, him, Bush did not stop. He driving. The spent weeks in the hospital recovering from a variety of serious injuries.
“Literally, the tire on the SUV ran over the driver’s head,” a witness told WBBH-TV in Fort Myers. “Without the helmet, the gentleman would have been dead instantly.”
Bush, a shortstop who was the first player taking in the baseball draft by the San Diego Padres, was pitching in the minor leagues for the Tampa Bay Rays at the time of the accident.
He has been held on a $440,000 bond since March in Charlotte County on Florida’s lower Gulf Coast on seven charges, counts that include leaving the scene of an accident that seriously injured a motorcyclist.
Bush received a $3.15 million signing bonus in ’04, but was suspended that summer after getting in a fight outside an Arizona bar.
He also was involved in another drinking-related incident before the Padres dealt him to the Tornoto Blue Jays in 2009. The Rays signed him to a free-agent deal before the 2010 season.
