Matthew J. White

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For other persons named Matt White, see Matt White.

Matthew Joseph White (born August 19, 1977, in Pittsfield, Massachusetts) and commonly known as Matt White, is a baseball pitcher, currently on a minor-league contract in the Los Angeles Dodgers organization. He is known not for his pitching career, but for his possession of a potentially-lucrative stone quarry in his native Massachusetts.

[edit] Baseball career

White played his college baseball at Clemson. He was first drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 1998 Amateur Draft. He has been through the Rule V Draft twice. In 2002, he was drafted by the Boston Red Sox. In 2003, he was drafted by the Colorado Rockies.

White has pitched in seven different organizations over the past nine seasons. He has three stints in the majors: he pitched three games for the Boston Red Sox in 2003 before being traded to the Seattle Mariners, for whom he pitched three more games in the same season. In 2005, he pitched one game for the Washington Nationals. During the 2006 offseason, he signed a minor-league contract with the Dodgers, and is currently a non-roster invitee for their spring training in Vero Beach, Florida.

In seven major-league games, White has pitched 9 2/3 innings. He is 0-2, and has allowed 17 hits, eight walks and 18 runs, for a 16.76 ERA and a WHIP of 2.59.

In 2006 in the minor leagues, he played for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons, where he played 38 games, starting 13 of them. He had a record of 7-9 with a 3.58 ERA and 69 strikeouts. He also played for the Navegantes del Magallanes in the Venezuelan Winter League, where he went 2-4 in ten starts with a 3.40 ERA and 34 strikeouts.

On March 19, 2007, White got sent back to the minors while trying to make the Los Angeles Dodgers bullpen. In spring training, he only allowed one earned run in 7 1/3 innings.^[1]

[edit] Rock career

In 2003, White purchased 50 acres of mountain real estate from his aunt for $50,000, giving her the money she needed to enter a nursing home. His original intention was to build his home, but he found the land to be too hard. When he called a surveyor out to inspect the land, the surveyor found that the land was solid stone, estimated to be about 400 megayears old. Estimates have placed the low estimate of the find at 24 million tons. At current prices (he has been selling the stone for over $100/ton), it is estimated to be worth around $2.5 billion, sans extraction costs.

White has begun a small-scale extraction operation, and made $60,000 in 2006. He has expressed interest in selling the land, and believes he will get "several million dollars."

Some of his Dodgers teammates refer to him in the clubhouse as "Mr. Billionaire." A story broke on most sports news outlets about him on February 28, 2007.