Bush made push for remarkable rise to MLB Draft
GCU outfielder cracks nation's top 100, evolved from 1-hit freshman year
Paul Coro
7/3/2023
Even as an itty-bitty newborn bundle, Homer Bush Jr. was bestowed large gifts at birth – a bigtime baseball name and a regulation-sized, personalized baseball glove.
“Literally out of the womb, I think I knew baseball was going to be the thing,” Bush Jr. said.
The son of a seven-year major-leaguer and World Series champion would need to maintain that convinced outlook.
Losing his high school senior season to COVID, going nearly unrecruited until Grand Canyon signed him and having a one-hit freshman season for the Lopes did not foretell the rocket rise of an outfielder projected to be picked in the MLB Draft’s top three rounds on Sunday or Monday.
Bush Jr. found his sweet spot over the past year, becoming one of the most improved college baseball players in the nation. At 6 feet 3 and 200 pounds, Bush Jr. was bat barrels of fun for GCU fans as his hitting surged from a .270 average as a sophomore to a .370 clip as a junior. He stole bases twice as often and struck out half as much as the prior season.
When Bush Jr. took batting and outfield practice and ran the fastest 40-yard time at the MLB Draft Combine last month, former big-leaguer and combine coach Michael Tucker did a double take at the familiar face. Tucker had coached Bush seven years ago at the Breakthrough Series.
“I’m looking and I don’t see the same kid,” Tucker said on Chase Field in Phoenix. “I see a kid 5 inches taller and heavier. He’s a grown man.
“He stayed through the zone and squared them up pretty good. That’s what we’re looking for – that contact, that sound.”
“Once he started walking, he had a bat in his hand.Monica Bush, Homer Bush Jr.'s mother
That contact, that sound began early, back when Bush Sr. created a home run fence in their Dallas-area backyard, incentivizing Bush Jr. since age 3 to repeat the swing and earn the homonym for their shared family name, “Homer.”
“Once he started walking, he had a bat in his hand,” his mother, Monica, said.
Bush Jr. gave soccer a try until he was 9, basketball until he was 14 and football until after being the star running back on his Carroll High School freshman team in Southlake, Texas. He then told his parents that he wanted to focus on baseball, the sport that made Bush Sr. a seventh-round draft pick of the San Diego Padres in 1991.
Bush Sr. spent six years in the minor leagues before being called up in 1997 by the New York Yankees, where he expanded his pinch-running role, played for a World Series champion a year later and was part of the Roger Clemens trade to become Toronto’s starting second baseman.
Bush Jr. was 2 1/2 years old when Bush Sr. played his 409th and final MLB game in a return to the Yankees, giving the son better photos with greats Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez than memories for that time. But he remained around the game as Bush Sr. entered coaching, which he continues now as a minor-league manager for the Staten Island FerryHawks in New York.
“He’s gone through a lot, but you have to do that,” Bush Sr. said. “It was a long and lengthy path, but there have been some really cool people who crossed his path, and that is something that isn’t forgotten by Jr. and me and my wife. You think, ‘How did he get to this situation?’ You quickly realize it was from all those people pouring into him.”
Between baseball culture osmosis and a backyard batting cage on a 1,000-square foot concrete slab, Bush Jr. was developing as he focused on baseball but he barely played as a high school sophomore, hit .194 as a junior and joined the showcase circuit later than many players.
“Not all exposure is good exposure,” Bush Sr. advised.
Bush Jr. did not know much about college baseball goals beyond the surrounding Big 12, but Bush Sr. laid a seed in his mind about GCU during his junior year because of his friendship with then-Lopes head coach Andy Stankiewicz. Bush Jr. began following the team’s social media, where the chronicles of a rising program in a picturesque ballpark intrigued him.
Even with his development, Bush Jr.’s only Division I offer came from New Mexico as he cracked Perfect Game’s national top 500 for his high school class. Following Bush Jr.’s lost senior season to COVID, Bush Sr. asked for recruiting advice from Stankiewicz, who said, “Let me come out and see your boy.”
Bush Jr. hit an opposite-field home run that summer day and was visiting GCU’s campus the following week, biting his tongue to not commit until he returned home.
“Super excited for what we’re building at GCU!” Bush Jr. tweeted when he signed in November 2019. “We’re gonna shock some people these next couple of years, beyond excited for it.”
Super excited for what we’re building at GCU! We’re gonna shock some people these next couple of years, beyond excited for it ?????? #lopesup https://t.co/lO0lasJac2
— ????? ???? ?? (@homerbushjr) November 13, 2019
Bush Jr. was also naïve to what was ahead.
In retrospect, there are few college apartments that could boast housing two potential top-100 baseball draft picks like the Willow Apartments unit that was shared by the freshman duo of Bush Jr. and GCU shortstop Jacob Wilson, a potential top-10 pick Sunday.
At the time, that outlook was not apparent. While Wilson started since Day 1 for GCU, Bush Jr. was not playing as a freshman and usually did not make the limited travel rosters in a season with more players than usual because of COVID carryovers.
“My husband has been invaluable in giving Homie an understanding of biding your time, putting in your time on things you can control and getting your work in so that you’re ready when your opportunity does come,” his mother, Monica, said.
The controllables were the weight room and the classroom while eliminating the room for doubt.
Bush Jr. fell in love with working out, excelled as a Sports Management student with a 3.92 GPA and treated shagging balls with game energy. He was surrounded by veteran influences with a workout group of Jonny Weaver, Brayden Merritt and Dane Stankiewicz, who kept him locked in for long-range gains.
“To get on campus and think you’re more prepared than you are is interesting looking back,” Bush Jr. said. “I was in pretty deep. The transition from high school to college is more than you think. Getting into the season and not playing a ton was tough to deal with. It felt like a fresh reset.
“Keeping my head on straight was key for development.”
Once I had the summer I had on the Cape Cod, it solidified that I was built for this.Homer Bush Jr.
After a GCU freshman season with six at bats and one hit, Bush Jr.’s breakout began in the summer of 2021 with every-day play in the east Tennessee town of Greeneville. He hit .316 for the Flyboys and became an Appalachian League All-Star.
Bush Sr., who wrote the “Hitting Low in the Zone” book, emphasized embracing baseball data to Bush Jr. While many thought hip injuries curtailed his MLB career, Bush Sr. said he was at his healthiest when he retired, but teams were more interested in on-base percentage during the Moneyball era.
“I kept telling Junior, ‘I know home runs and walks are popular right now, but I promise you the game can’t sustain that,’ “ Bush Sr. said. “You want to be a high base-hit guy, and you still want to have walks.”
The Bushes focused on improving his speed, and Bush Jr. shaved two-tenths of a second off his 40- and 60-yard times to 4.5 and 6.5 seconds, respectively, in eight weeks of training with former NFL safety Willie Pile.
Bush Jr. became the Lopes’ starting center fielder as a sophomore, hitting .317 over the first two months of the season before slipping to .270. The season-long performance for an NCAA regional qualifier earned him an invitation to the Cape Cod Baseball League, the best summer collegiate league.
He had a three-hit debut but fell into a 5-for-34 slump, which lasted until a Fenway Park workout in which Bush Jr. whacked balls over the Green Monster twice. He went on a tear and became a Cape Cod All-Star and wound up leaving Massachusetts with a .285 batting average and renewed confidence.
“You think about it and dream on it, but it’s hard to understand what it takes to compete at that level,” Bush Jr. said. “In that second year, you understand what it takes. My sophomore year was funky and up and down. Once I had the summer I had on the Cape Cod, it solidified that I was built for this. I had zero clue what I was capable of. That was a complete test run to see what type of player I could be.
“I stunk at the beginning. To fail and overcome that, it gave me the confidence that I could not only succeed but also fail and come back from that. I knew coming into this year that my ceiling is pretty high.”
In the fall, you saw a guy on a different level than the previous two years.GCU head coach Gregg Wallis
Bush Jr. had made the physical and mental adjustments to baseball at a higher level. Instead of constantly changing and worrying about where each of his fingers and toes were, he simplified his hitting process to make it easier to get back on the track if his swing derailed.
That did not happen often last season, when Bush was put on the Golden Spikes Award midseason watch list as he hit. 370 with 19 doubles and 25 steals in 31 tries. That on-base percentage that his father emphasized shot up to .478 in the leadoff spot this year.
“He used every opportunity, whether it was weight room, fall season, spring season, to improve his game,” GCU head coach Gregg Wallis said. “For his junior year, he had an incredible season and he’s earned everything coming his way with the draft because he’s incredibly skilled and one of the hardest workers.
“The whole package of skill, experience and confidence came together at Cape Cod, and it gave him the confidence that there was nothing that could hold him back from being one of the best players in the country. In the fall, you saw a guy on a different level than the previous two years.”
Early in the season, Bush Jr. texted his father, “This could be a special year,” explaining how he understood his successes and failures more than in the past.
“A lot of people talk about how he’s always even-keeled, and one of the reasons is because he’s always thinking about what just happened,” Bush Sr. said. “If it’s something he did well, ‘How can I repeat it?’ If it’s something he didn’t, ‘What did I do wrong?” Mentally, he’s always in the moment.”
The Bush parents moved to Scottsdale, Arizona, to be part of his final two seasons at GCU, which they feel proved to be the perfect place for their son.
Knowing baseball well, the Bushes understand that he may not have returned to many other top programs after a 1-for-6 freshman season or received as much coaching as he did when he was not playing.
“Proud is not even a good enough word to express what we are of him,” Monica said. “We’re honored to be his parents and watch him mature the way he has to get to this point. He’s had so much support from friends, family and coaches, but when he went to that draft combine, it was all him.”
There are surreal moments when a scout tells Bush Sr. that Bush Jr.‘s baserunning ability and acumen reminds him of Trea Turner, a player he coached as the hitting instructor for single-A Eugene of the Padres organization.
Bush Jr. used to ride the team bus as a 12-year-old and play the Clash of Clans phone game with Turner. If Turner can continue his MLB career long enough, they may play games together again.
“He’s developed so much each year, but he’s not even near the player he’ll be when he’s ready to play in the big league,” Wallis said. “He’s not even near a finished product. There’s way more upside for Homer.”
Bush Jr. leaves GCU with his tweeted intentions carried out.
The Lopes indeed “shocked some people,” with two NCAA tournament berths and three consecutive WAC regular-season titles, the last of which came when the Lopes went on a 14-game winning streak as Bush went 7 for 12 in the conference championship-clinching series sweep.
“I don’t plan on stopping any kind of contributions to the university, even if it’s my presence,” Bush Jr. said. “Making sure my stamp is on the program and university is big for me. When you think of GCU, you think of Tim Salmon. When people think of GCU, I want them to think of Homer Bush Jr.”
