"I got a rock."

[SackAttack]

With apologies to Charlie Brown:

Originally Posted by Ken Gurnick, MLB.com

Who's the wealthiest Dodger?

Jason Schmidt? Jeff Kent? Frank McCourt?

It could be Matt White.

Who?

White is a 29-year-old left-handed journeyman pitcher in camp on a Minor League contract who's pitched a total of 9 2/3 Major League innings in nine professional seasons and he's sitting on a gold mine.

Actually, it's a rock quarry.

Four years ago, White bought a 50-acre piece of property in Massachusetts from his ailing Aunt Josephine, who was going into a nursing home. He planned to build a house on the property, but discovered it to be absolutely covered with rock. A geologist determined the property was loaded with mica schist, a slate-like shiny metamorphic stone used for patio decks and other construction.

"I never built the house and instead started selling the rock," said White, whose father runs the business. "It turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The geologist said I've got 24 million tons of it and it sells for $100 a ton."

So, according to White's math, he's sitting on a $2.4 billion mountain of rock. That's billion, with a "B." The property cost him $50,000.

He could parlay the fortunate real estate play into buying, say, a baseball club. It's been known to happen. So, why still bother with baseball on the player end, especially with the likelihood of cracking the Dodgers' deep Major League pitching staff no better than remote?

"This is fun," said White, who has played with Boston, Seattle and Washington. "I wouldn't retire. What else am I going to do?"

A teammate of Billy Koch and Kris Benson at Clemson, White was originally drafted by Cleveland and was twice taken in the Rule 5 draft. He spent the 2006 season at Philadelphia's Triple-A affiliate at Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, where he was 7-9 with a 3.58 ERA, and played winter ball in Venezuela.

Let's see here. He paid $50,000 for 50 acres of land. $1000/acre, say.

24 million tons of mica schist on that land, works out to 480,000 tons/acre.

$100/ton * 480,000 tons/acre = $48,000,000 worth of rock on each acre of that boy's land. That means each acre he owns, by itself, returns 48,000% on his investment.

I wonder what his property taxes look like?

[molson]

Hopefully he'll take Aunt Josephine out of that nursing home.

[SackAttack]

I don't know that the article is terribly clear on whether she ever entered it to begin with.

[SackAttack]

Dola,

Or that she's still around, since she was 'ailing' at the time of the sale.

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Dola,

Or that she's still around, since she was 'ailing' at the time of the sale.

I would imagine the shock of her poor real estate skills probably finished her off.

[SackAttack]

Originally Posted by Lathum

I would imagine the shock of her poor real estate skills probably finished her off.

Am I going to hell for laughing at that?

[Lathum]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

Am I going to hell for laughing at that?

not in my book

[Vinatieri for Prez]

I wonder if he has factored in the cost of digging it up? Is that $100/ton profit after he excavates it, or is that what he charges for someone else to enter the land and excavate it themselves. I wonder if his hope of profit is anywhere near the $2.4 billion. I know in the oil business there are a number of oil fields that are not (and may never) be drilled because the cost of drilling and refining the oil outweighs its sale price. White does say that it "sells" for $100/ton. I imagine he has some costs so I doubt he is looking at $2.4 billion. Factoring in the time value of money for his $50,000 and the revenue that will not come in for years if not decades, I imagine his return is well below 48,000%. And if the cost of the rock ever goes down, his return is even less.

[molson]

Originally Posted by Vinatieri for Prez

I wonder if he has factored in the cost of digging it up? Is that $100/ton profit after he excavates it, or is that what he charges for someone else to enter the land and excavate it themselves. I wonder if his hope of profit is anywhere near the $2.4 billion. I know in the oil business there are a number of oil fields that are not (and may never) be drilled because the cost of drilling and refining the oil outweighs its sale price. White does say that it "sells" for $100/ton. I imagine he has some costs so I doubt he is looking at $2.4 billion. Factoring in the time value of money for his $50,000 and the revenue that will not come in for years if not decades, I imagine his return is well below 48,000%. And if the cost of the rock ever goes down, his return is even less.

I wonder how much $$ worth of mica schist is even sold in the US per year. $2.4 billion worth suddenly flooding the market would probably cause the stuff to plummet in value. I imagine the move would be to just sell it to a mining company and convert to cash.

[Lathum]

It seems like a nice problem to have

[Peregrine]

Mica schist is not something that's uncommon, I think there are parts of the world that have tons of it, like New York and parts of New England. I'm sure he can sell it but it is really old-school for buildings, used for restorations and things like that, I doubt he could sell that many tons of it in many lifetimes.

[molson]

White's calculations kind of remind me of when Bart Simpson found out how much Principle Skinner made per year:

"$25,000 a year, times 40 years old, Skinner's a millionaire!".

[Toddzilla]

I hope Aunt Josephine at least gets a reach-around for this

[Fidatelo]

They attribute the math to White, but don't ever really show where he says he's worth 2+ billion. He just says it sells for $100 a tonne and he has 24 million tonnes of it. I'm guessing the 'journalist' did the math here, White likely understands that there is the cost of digging it up, selling it, etc.

[Butter]

Well I did the math, and according to my calculations White is worth eleventy billion dollars.

[CU Tiger]

Yeah and dude was a suite mate of mine in college...
The bastard was always lucky aas shit.
One night 5 of us drove to Georgie and bought lottery tickets (we were broke college students it seemed like a good idea) we all bought $10 scratch of tickets each, he bought1 $1 ticket. Combined I think we "won" $12, his was worth $500..

By the way Mica Shist (that is the shizit...) is used to make tavelene (sp?) and other types of solid surface flooring and countere tops. He could seel it all tomorrow if it was excavated...

[GoSeahawks]

Is this the same Matt White that signed a 10+ million dollar draft signing bonus with the D-Rays back in 96?

[SackAttack]

No. This guy signed with the Indians out of Clemson.

[CU Tiger]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

No. This guy signed with the Indians out of Clemson.

If I am remembering correctly (and I only marginally followed him) he was actually drafted by the padres and immediately traded to the indians

[bulletsponge]

Originally Posted by SackAttack

With apologies to Charlie Brown:



Let's see here. He paid $50,000 for 50 acres of land. $1000/acre, say.

24 million tons of mica schist on that land, works out to 480,000 tons/acre.

$100/ton * 480,000 tons/acre = $48,000,000 worth of rock on each acre of that boy's land. That means each acre he owns, by itself, returns 48,000% on his investment.

I wonder what his property taxes look like?

who cares, He's Rich Bytch!

[DanGarion]

Anyone that is making fun of or questioning any of the math is just jealous because they don't have anywhere near to as much money as he'll have after selling even a small portion of the shit.

[Butter]

Originally Posted by dangarion

Anyone that is making fun of or questioning any of the math is just jealous because they don't have anywhere near to as much money as he'll have after selling even a small portion of the shit.

Or amused by lazy reporting. One of the two.

[Lorena]

Am I the only one that reads this thread title as "I Wanna Rock"?!

WHADYA WANNA DO WITH YOUR LIFE??

[Mr. Wednesday]

His brother was in my high school class.