Matt White Rocks

Matt White, a journeyman reliever in camp with the Los Angeles Dodgers, is sitting on a gold mine. Well, it’s not gold, but it might as well be:

White, a former Rule 5 pick of the Red Sox who has appeared in seven games, paid $50,000 three years ago to buy 50 acres of land from an elderly aunt who needed the money to pay for a nursing home.

While clearing out a couple acres to build a home, he discovered stone ledges in the ground. A geologist estimated there were 24 million tons of the stone, which is being sold for upward of $100 a ton, meaning there’s well over $2 billion worth of material.

Um, that’s kind of a nice return on investment. According to Dr. Peter Pannish at the University of Massachusetts, the rock on White’s property is “used for sidewalks, building faces and stone walls.” This is classic:

Pannish said he believes White could sell his property for several million dollars, or more.

“As far as hundreds of millions, I doubt if that’s possible because of all the expenses that would have to be considered,” Pannish said. “But it could be quite a bit of money.”

So, what he’s saying is that this kid who has been struggling to work his way through the minors for several years will have to settle for less than hundreds of millions. Just a guess here, but I’m thinking that White will be happy even if he can sell it for only tens of millions.