Bush hospitalised with pneumonia, tweets congrats to sportsman

HOUSTON (AP):

Former President George H.W. Bush may be hospitalised and in intensive care, but the 41st president's twitter account is active, offering "hearty congrats" to former Houston Astros baseball player Jeff Bagwell on his election to the baseball Hall of Fame.

Bush spokesman Jim McGrath says while the 92-year-old Bush didn't physically type the tweet Thursday, he did approve it from his room at Houston's Methodist Hospital.

Bush calls the Astros' slugging first baseman a "good friend and great player" and that his election Wednesday into Cooperstown is well deserved.

Bush also was a first baseman when he attended Yale, and was captain of the Yale team that played in the first College World Series in 1947. As president, he kept his first baseman's glove in his desk in the Oval Office, and he and Barbara Bush frequently have attended Astros games since he left the White House.

A spokesman says doctors are evaluating former president George H.W. Bush before they remove a breathing tube.

Spokesman Jim McGrath says Thursday that Bush remains in intensive care at Houston Methodist Hospital while he's being treated for pneumonia after what McGrath says was a "good night's rest."

McGrath also says that former first lady Barbara Bush feels "1,000 per cent better" after antibiotics and some rest. She's being treated for bronchitis. She checked into the same hospital as her husband Wednesday after recent weeks of fatigue and coughing.

McGrath says doctors are hopeful the nation's 41st president can be discharged from intensive care in a few days.