When you ask Matt Bush to say the first thing that comes to mind in one of those word association exercises, he nods.

March 22, 2012?

“Prison.”

One word. That’s it. … Then you notice his eyes.

There’s vulnerability — the kind that’s a powerful mix of pain and regret and embarrassment and unmitigated fear. It’s a look rarely seen in professional athletes, a group whose mental toughness is fired brick-tough by stressful sports situations that would reduce most of us to puddles.

LONG, LITTERED ROAD FOR BUSH’S BASEBALL RETURN Baseball player Matt Bush, who played at Mission Bay High School in San Diego, has returned to the game. The Texas Rangers signed Bush, a converted pitcher who turned 30 last month, to a minor-league deal. The long road back included multiple alcohol-related run-ins with police, including 51 months in prison after a 2012 Florida crash that seriously injured a motorcyclist. JUNE 7, 2004: The San Diego Padres drafted Bush No. 1 overall, the first shortstop in the top spot since Alex Rodriquez in 1993. Bush collected a $3.15 million signing bonus. He’s 18. JUNE 20, 2004: Bush arrested after a physical confrontation with bar security near the Padres spring training facility in Peoria, Ariz. 2007: Padres moved the infielder to pitcher and he hits 98 mph in workouts, despite last throwing in high school. AUGUST 2007: Tore a ligament in the elbow on his throwing arm; underwent Tommy John surgery and missed entire 2008 season. FEB. 4, 2009: Caught on video during an allegedly drunken assault of a high school lacrosse player on campus. FEB. 5, 2009: Padres designated Bush for assignment, trading him to Toronto five days later. MARCH 30, 2009: Allegedly assaulted a woman at a party. The Blue Jays released him the next day. JUNE 28, 2009: Arrested for DUI. Video, which showed an emotional Bush being taken into custody, drew national attention. JAN. 28, 2010: Signed a minor-league deal with Tampa Bay. MARCH 22, 2012: Involved in a near-deadly crash with a motorcyclist. He left the scene and was later arrested for DUI with a blood-alcohol level more than twice the legal limit. OCT. 30, 2015: Released from prison. DEC. 18, 2015: Signed a minor-league deal with Texas, the team that also worked with substance-abuse issues with 2010 MVP Josh Hamilton . The team implemented a no-tolerance policy, including Bush being prohibited from driving. His father, Danny, is staying with him.

In that brief instant Thursday at the Texas Rangers’ spring training facility, Bush no longer seemed the fit, promising pitcher with a minor-league deal who flirts with 95 mph on the radar gun; no longer the No. 1 overall pick in the 2004 amateur draft awarded a $3.15 million signing bonus by the San Diego Padres.

This is a man who failed so much — and so often. A man who failed so many. A man teetering on a daily tightrope, leaning on baseball for balance, hoping like hell not to hurt anyone anymore, including himself.

The softening eyes offered a window into the man who, on March 22, 2012, hit Florida motorcyclist Tony Tufano while driving drunk in a vehicle borrowed from a teammate during spring training with the Tampa Bay Rays .

When he peeled away from the scene that fate-shifting afternoon, Bush ran over Tufano’s head — the grandfather saved only by grace and a motorcycle helmet.

Bush, booted out of a strip club for trying to climb on stage earlier in the day, was arrested for a third DUI and released by a third baseball team. First came a series of incidents with the Padres, who passed up current major leaguers Stephen Drew , Justin Verlander and Jered Weaver to invest in a local kid with unlimited potential from Mission Bay High School.

Then it was the Toronto Blue Jays, as Bush violated a no-tolerance policy by assaulting a woman at a party. Then it was the Rays, a day that proved to be the most dangerous and damaging of all.

“It seems like it’s been longer than (almost) four years, because time seemed to go real slow after that happened,” said Danny Bush, Matt’s father. “Things weren’t moving so good.”

‘It was pretty rough’

To Danny, life had offered an unbelievable bounty. His son was progressing on a can’t-miss professional career as he was nearing retirement.

Then life uncorked a big-league curveball.

“That threw a wrench in the machine,” the elder Bush said. “It took a lot of thinking, a lot of digging in, digging deep. Becoming more religious, finding God. And respecting people even more, rather than taking things for granted.

“Baseball, baseball — my boy’s going to do this and that. … (I told myself) I should be cool, because every time I start getting all happy and everything, something might happen to bring it down.

“Yeah, it was pretty rough.”

Bush spent most of his three and half years behind bars at the Hamilton Correctional Institute in Jasper, Fla., about 90 miles west of Jacksonville. When you ask about the day that led him there, a culmination of so many flawed and regrettable days before it, a tangled life is summarized in that one word.

Prison.

You wonder if that’s a selfish answer. That’s what the day did to him. But what about Tufano, a man still dealing with health issues related to the crash? What about Bush’s parents, including a mother who suffered a stress-induced aneurysm a day after his arrest?

Then Bush, a pitcher converted from a draft-day shortstop, made a save. There was more to say, he said. There was more to explain about the people forever linked to March 22, 2012.

“I think of … the trauma to my family and Mr. Tufano, the Tampa Bay Rays,” said Bush, who turned 30 last month. “It was a disaster.”

4/11/2002 - Mission Bay P Matt Bush at bat. Jim Baird / Union-Tribune

Alcoholism isn’t Bush’s crutch or excuse. Alcoholism is his reality.

He had his first drink at age 13, introducing a demon that’s been with him longer than it hasn’t. Danny is staying with him during spring training. The two attend 12-step programs multiple times each week.

No one is expected to forgive Bush, though the man in his mid-70s that nearly lost his life told former big-leaguer Gabe Kapler in a May 2014, Fox Sports story that he hoped Bush got back into sports and “did something positive.”

Maybe you understand Bush, though — at least on some level. Wrestling with alcoholism is relatable to far too many. If you’re like most of us, you know people fighting against it daily. Maybe you’ve tumbled into the abyss, lost control, found yourself in the dark. Maybe you know about the things you can’t fix — and the things you can’t take back.

No one needs to explain it to Bush. He’s acknowledged the damage. He’s grasped, too, that the clock stubbornly refuses to be turned back. The path, whatever that path becomes, is forward.

When he was released from prison, Bush wrote a letter to Tufano. He offered an apology and outlined his lingering remorse. The two initially planned to meet, but Bush said Tufano told his lawyer that while he wished him well, he feared reliving the day when their lives intersected.

The letter became a bridge — the sole bridge available.

Matt Bush (left) attends sentencing in El Cajon with attorney Greg Daniels. — John Gibbins / San Diego Union-Tribune

“It’s good for me to get that off my chest and for him to be able to understand, hey, I just didn’t go out there one day, looking to find somebody to hit in my car and ruin their life,” Bush said.

“I’m very sorry for my mistakes. I’m going to do everything that I can to stay sober and to not ever put anybody in that situation again.”

There’s no way of knowing if Bush can live up to his pledge, because it’s a promise an alcoholic can never guarantee.

Few understand that better than Roy Silver, the Rangers’ player development assistant who helped slugger Josh Hamilton deal with his own substance abuse. Silver forged a bond with Bush years ago and remained in touch.

Last May, Silver drove to Jacksonville from his home in Clearwater after Bush landed a work release job at a Golden Corral restaurant. The two began slowly, stretching and toning relationship muscles.

The drives continued. They started to throw a baseball in the restaurant’s parking lot since Bush was required to remain on the grounds. They talked and threw, threw and talked. The process continued for seven months.

No customer cars were harmed.

“Nope,” Silver said. “He’s got too good of an aim.”

Back in baseball

Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Bush during a spring training baseball game in Fort Myers, Fla., Thursday, March 8, 2012. AP Photo/Charles Krupa) Charles Krupa — AP

Silver felt hesitant about the prospects of Bush returning to baseball.

“Initially, it wasn’t like I was all excited about him playing professionally again because who’s to say that he could handle it?” Silver said. “Physically, not sure where he was at. It all kind of came together, seeing that his arm was in good shape and his mind was in a good place.

“It’s different when you’re 29 (now 30) and you’ve grown up a little bit. A lot of things had to kind of come together for us as friends for this to happen.”

One day, Bush threw 95 mph in the restaurant parking lot as diners attacked the buffet inside. The setting provided an abnormal backdrop for resurrecting a baseball career.

“It wasn’t normal for me to be throwing a softball in prison, either,” Bush said. “My last three and a half years weren’t normal, by any means. But throwing in the parking lot was fine. I got to play catch with a real baseball player and coach, mentor, everything else.

“I thought it was a blast. I enjoyed every moment of it.”

The arm seemed there. The smile returned. Silver liked what he saw and recommended that the Rangers take a peek.

“Obviously, if he was throwing the ball 85 mph, we wouldn’t be here,” Silver said. “But I would have still been there. I think I’d still be in his life. I’ve always told him that.”

There’s context for what Bush may have surrendered to alcohol and a parade of reckless decision-making. The other players the Padres considered in 2004 — Drew ( Nationals ), Verlander ( Tigers ) and Weaver (Angels) — are entering their 11th big-league seasons.

History continues to nag at Bush. In the first round of the 2004 draft, All-Star pitcher Glen Perkins was selected. Former Padres closer Huston Street was a supplemental No. 1 choice. A round later, professional mainstays Hunter Pence and Dustin Pedroia were picked. Only two players picked No. 1 overall — catcher Steve Chilcott (1966) and pitcher Brien Taylor (1991) — failed to make the majors.

Playing at baseball’s highest level remains possible, insisted Bush, who reportedly is expected to begin this season at Double-A Frisco.

“If it wasn’t realistic in my mind, I wouldn’t be out here,” he said.

And here, Bush said on a cloudless, sun-splashed day at Surprise Stadium, means everything.

“When things start to get a little scrambled in my mind, I have plenty of people I can reach out to, I can talk to,” he said. “Life is always much better here than there.”

Prison.

“I don’t want to be the guy that always screwed everything up and threw everything away,” he said.

We’ll wait. We’ll see. With Matt Bush, that’s all anyone can do.