L.A. Dodger pitcher Matt White (pictured left) may soon be Major League Baseball's first billionaire, though it probably won't come through endorsements, or a record signing bonus.
It turns out that Matt White, whose appeared in seven major league games over nine professional seasons, bought 50 acres of land from an elderly aunt about three years ago so she could pay for nursing home care.
While clearing out a couple acres to build a home, he found a number of deep rock ledges. A geologist has estimated that are about 24 million tons of stone that currently sells for about $100/ton, making tha haul potentially worth over two billion dollars!
The news of the find has prompted some of the 29 year-old's teammates to refer to him as "the billionaire."
For his part, White is pretty modest, "It sounds bogus even saying those numbers. I'm just a samll town guy trying to get to the big leagues. It's beyond comprehension."
His father has already begun selling off the stone, but admits that to date, it's a small time operation. Of course, the processing and transporting all that rock would come off the price of all that stone, but White has begun the process of fielding offers for the property.
Dr. Peter Pannish, a geologist from the University of Massachussetts has surveyed the property and says the property could fetch several million dollars, but doubts it would reach into the hundreds of millions, let alone billions.
Despite the distraction, White remains focused on baseball, "I plan to play baseball until I can't play any more," he says, "My goal is to play in the big leagues regardless of what happens with the rock quarry."
2 comments:
Matt White was a first round seletion for the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 1996 and signed a $10.1 million contract. Unfortunately, he suffered thorugh a series of arm injuries and, if memory serves, never pitched for them. He did pitch briefly for the Bosox in 2003 as your picture shows but is now trying to make the Dodgers roster this spring as a bullpen pitcher.
Maybe he'll just buy them and declare himself the opening day pitcher!
Or better, move 'em back to Brooklyn!!!
I DID NOT know that Mal.
That's some journey, 29 y/o - that's a lot of minor league bus rides.
Yeah, maybe he'll be able to buy a team and make himself a starter, kind of like that NY Lotto commercial!
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