Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes: Aberdeen’s Guy Bush

Guy Bush Photo courtesy of the book Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes

Guy Terrell Bush of Aberdeen, a fabulous pitcher, might best be remembered for two pitches he would rather have forgotten.

While pitching for the Chicago Cubs in 1932, Bush served up Babe Ruth’s last two home runs, numbers 713 and 714.

Bush attended Tupelo Military Institute in 1921-22. His professional baseball career began with the Cotton States League in 1922-23, when he played for Greenville. Then it was on to the Major League Cubs from 1923-34 for the man known as the “Mississippi Mudcat.”

He pitched on a World Series championship team in 1929. He was named to Babe Ruth’s All-American team also in 1929 when he had one streak of 11 straight pitching victories. In 1932, Bush won 19 games. Later he pitched for the Pittsburgh Pirates (1935-36), the Boston Braves (1936-37), the St. Louis Cardinals (1938) and the Cincinnati Reds (1945). He had a career record of 176-136. He gave up just one run in 11 innings in two World Series appearances.

Bush died in 1985 at the age of 83.

Courtesy of Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame and Museum director Rick Cleveland, author of Mississippi’s Greatest Athletes. Cleveland can be reached at rcleveland@msfame.com.