ARLINGTON -- Globe Life Park is a long way from Frisco.

It’s an even longer way from the parking lot of the Golden Corral in Jacksonville, Fla.

But that’s where the resurrection of Matt Bush’s baseball career began about a year ago at this time -- a resurrection that culminated Friday night with his recall by the Rangers from Frisco.

The Rangers needed a live arm for their embattled bullpen and Bush, with a fastball in the mid-90s, got the call despite having thrown only 17 competitive innings over the last five seasons. Those all came at the Double-A level in Frisco this spring.

That’s because Bush, the first overall pick of the June 2004 draft, had been out of baseball for the last four years serving prison time for a 2012 drunken driving, hit-and-run conviction.

Enter Roy Silver. Or, rather, re-enter Roy Silver.

Silver became friends with Bush in the spring of 2009 during Sunday chapels when Bush was in the big-league camp of the Toronto Blue Jays and Silver a camp volunteer.

“I was more of a mentor to him,” Silver said. “When he got into the situation in 2012, we stuck it out. We never quit being friends.”

Bush’s father reached out to Silver early in Matt’s incarceration and, because he had no phone privileges in prison, the two started corresponding with letters. When Bush left prison to enter a halfway house in Jacksonville in January 2015, Silver would make that 3 ½-hour drive from his home in Clearwater on a monthly basis to have dinner with him at the Golden Corral and check his well-being. Bush needed employment when he moved into the halfway house and Golden Corral provided him that paycheck.

“I thought I could help him get a job coaching or scouting,” said Silver, a baseball lifer who had been hired by the Rangers prior to the 2015 season as a special assistant in player development . “I knew it was going to be hard for him to function in society after what he had done. My concern was what is he going to do with his life when he gets out? You want to care about the person before the athlete.”

On his visits, Silver would pull his glove out of the trunk and the two would play catch in the parking lot. Catch evolved into long toss.

“It was pretty immediate that I knew his arm was OK,” Silver said, “but I wasn’t really concerned about the physical side as much as I was the mental, emotional and spiritual side. After a couple of visits on my own, about March, I mentioned it to the Rangers. I said, 'Would you guys be interested?' At first it was, 'We'll think about it. How much longer is he in there for?’”

By the summer, Silver was driving to Jacksonville twice a month. And he was now bringing his catching gear. Bush would use a concrete parking stopper as his rubber and there was a natural incline from that particular parking spot toward the drain. Silver brought a rubber plate from his days as a youth softball coach and, Voila! -- Bush was once again throwing off a “mound” at the Golden Corral.

“He got more in-tune with his baseball shape and it started becoming more and more of a reality,” Silver said. “I had that personal relationship with him and I happened to work for Texas so I asked him if he’d be interest in the Rangers if the Rangers were interested in him. He said, `Sure.’ That was August. I told the Rangers he looks pretty good physically, we’re having good conversations and he’ll be coming out Oct. 30.”

On Dec. 18, the Rangers signed Bush to a minor-league contract. Five months later, he was wearing a big-league uniform for the first time in his life. He debuted in the ninth inning in mop-up duty, striking out Josh Donaldson and setting down the 2-3-4 hitters in the Toronto lineup in order.

Silver spent eight seasons in the farm system of the Cardinals before becoming a coach and finally a manager, all in the minors. Now he is as much a life coach as a baseball coach for the Rangers, roaming their minor leagues.

“I always wanted to be a baseball coach,” Silver said. “But we have a lot of people who do that stuff very well. So I concentrate on foul territory. I think a lot can be gained and lost in foul territory, whether it’s the clubhouse, your home, the hotel, the night life... I’ve always been that way with all of my players. If your life is in order off the field, I think you’re going to get more production on the field.”

Silver, who employed Josh Hamilton at his baseball academy during that player’s rehabilitation 10 years ago, stood in the back of the room at Bush’s introductory press conference Friday. But he didn’t find the moment rewarding.

“What’s rewarding will be 10 years from today and the story has been written a little further,” Silver said. “This is just a paragraph in the beginning of his story. It’s exciting to be a part of this ... but rewarding? No. For him it has to be just another day.

“He’s blessed to be able to throw a ball 95-plus miles an hour to be here. But he also knows if he threw the ball 85 miles an hour I would still be in his life.”

Listen to Rick Gosselin at 10:50 a.m. Tuesdays on Sportsradio 1310 AM/96.7 FM The Ticket with Norm Hitzges and Donovan Lewis, and follow @RickGosselinDMN on Twitter.