Sports: Wake Forest's biggest save? Keeping its closer

From being drafted by Rays to dealing with a career-threatening condition, Dave Bush has come through it all to remain one of the nation's top relievers.

By BRUCE LOWITT, Times Staff Writer
© St. Petersburg Times
published May 20, 2002

Dave Bush has known frustration and fear.

He also could have been a Devil Ray.

Not that the two are entirely connected.

But had Wake Forest's closer not been the Rays' fourth-round draft choice in June, had his contract negotiations not been so protracted and had he not survived a career-threatening confrontation with a blood clot, Bush would not be on the Florida Power Park mound in the Atlantic Coast Conference tournament starting Tuesday.

The Rays' loss was the Demon Deacons' gain. Bush, 22, a 6-foot-2, 210-pound senior right-hander with a mid 90s fastball, a mean slider and pinpoint control, is 6-1 with 13 saves and a 1.50 ERA this season.

"I don't have enough adjectives to describe him," said Florida State coach Mike Martin, who probably used some choice ones during the season. In three games (31/3 innings) against FSU, Bush got a win, a save, struck out four, allowed one hit and one unearned run.

"He is very, very intimidating," Martin said. "You know if Wake Forest has the lead in the seventh inning you're going to see him. And as a coach, you're doing everything you can not to see him."

And as if he weren't intimidating enough, Bush will be working in Florida Park, a pitcher's park, with its more distant outfield fences. "It gives me a little more room to work with," he said. "I can work up in the (strike) zone a little bit and get some fly balls without worrying about cheap home runs."

He was an All-America pitcher. Baseball America ranked him the nation's No. 1 college closer. When Tampa Bay drafted him, most friends and teammates thought he would sign.

"Whatever choice he made was going to be an excellent choice for either party, and for him," Wake Forest coach George Greer said. And, yes, Greer added, he's happy Bush came back.

Bush said he wanted to sign quickly and get a full summer as a pro under his belt. But negotiations with the Rays started badly.

"They dragged on and on and the summer season was pretty much over," he said. "If I'd signed at that point I'd have basically been sitting around until the spring, waiting to play again. So I came back and never looked back."

The decision "was totally his and it was a surprise to a lot of people," his mother Rita said from the family's travel agency in suburban Philadelphia. "Knowing David, I wasn't surprised that he decided ultimately to go back and finish his last year. Education is very important to him."

After spending Thanksgiving with his parents, Bush headed back to school. He had felt soreness in his back and left thigh but didn't think much of it. When he got out of the car his leg was swollen and painful. He could barely walk.

A blood clot had lodged in his left hip, rare for a young athlete. Had it not been diagnosed and treated that night, doctors said, the aneurysm likely would have burst. It would have ended his career before it began and could have been fatal.

Bush was hospitalized for weeks. Surgery dissolved most of the clot. He was given blood thinners and, when discharged, medication for three months. He was not allowed to run or throw.

"Someone who's 70, 80 and not very active can be on medication as long as necessary," Bush said. "I had a three-month window, the minimum cycle for the drug to work. If I went back in February and it didn't, I'd have to have another three-month cycle and that would have cost me the entire season. ... I'd probably have gone to grad school, given myself another year or two to think about it."

Able to play or not, one of Bush's likely goals is to be a sports psychologist. "When you want to do something for so long and it gets taken way, it takes a long time to get over it," he said. "Whatever I would do for the rest of my career, it's going to have to be sports-related. I've been involved with it my whole life."

That includes preschool, his mother said: "He's always loved baseball. He learned to read when someone taught him where the boxscores were in the newspaper. So he's read the newspaper ... since he was about 5."

On Feb. 12 the blood clot was gone. Wake Forest's season began the next day. "I struggled for a couple of weeks," Bush said. "I had to get back in shape."

When he did, he recaptured the form that helped him finish second in the nation in saves in 2001 with 16.

Not bad for someone who had been recruited as a catcher. "I hadn't really pitched at all (10 innings in high school). I'd caught my whole life," Bush said.

The Demon Deacons had a catcher, a senior. Bush wouldn't be playing much. He asked Greer for a chance to pitch.

"He put me in the bullpen to see what I could do in blowout situations where I couldn't affect the outcome," Bush said. "He started putting me out there in more important situations and so on. It worked out pretty well."

The Demon Deacons haven't won a College World Series since 1955, haven't won an ACC title since 1970.

"Right now," Bush said, "the biggest thing I'm trying to accomplish is to get us to the World Series."

He is draft-eligible again. What if the Rays select him?

"Whatever happens, happens," Bush said. "The enticing thing about a situation like that is that in the majors, when your team isn't very good, it gives you the opportunity to move up quickly. It may be frustrating at first, you may struggle a lot and not win many games, but at least you've got a better chance to play."

-- Times staff writer Brian Landman contributed to this report.

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