Wasted Daily News

Matt White, a journeyman pitcher trying to make the Los Angeles Dodgers, could become baseball’s first billionaire player.

It has nothing to do with his arm. He owns a rock quarry in western Massachusetts.

White, who has appeared in seven big league games in nine professional seasons, 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, prompting him to have the property surveyed.

A geologist estimated there were 24 million tons of the stone on his land. The stone is being sold for upward of $100 per ton, meaning there’s well over $2 billion worth of material used for sidewalks, patios and the like. Read the rest of this entry →

The “Mona Lisa” of baseball cards has sold for a record $2.35 million(1.2 million pounds).  The T206 Honus Wagner baseball card is considered the most valuable baseball card in existence, according to SCP Auctions, the new minority owners of the card. SCP said on Tuesday the primary purchaser, a Southern California collector, wished to remain anonymous. Read the rest of this entry →

As President Bush smiled and waved from the stands and Mickey Mantle looked on from the dugout, Derek Jeter swung his bat. Talk about pressure. Luckily, the game never happened. It was just someone’s idea of a visual gag — pulled off in a recent Topps baseball card through digital manipulation. Read the rest of this entry →

A Brazilian referee was suspended on Monday for sending off the wrong player during a match at the weekend.

Rodrigo Martins Cintra has been banned indefinitely following his performance during the Corinthians-Rio Branco match in the Paulista championship, the head of the Paulista Football Federation’s referees committee said.

“The mistake happened,” Marcos Marinho told reporters. “He thought it was one player but it was a different one. He needs some time to get over it.” Read the rest of this entry →

A teenage girl in southern Pakistan, whose late father lost her in a poker game when she was 2 years old, has asked authorities to save her from being handed over to a middle-aged relative.

Rasheeda, 17, said she has filed applications with the police and a local councillor asking them to prevent Lal Haider, 45, from taking her to his home.

Her mother, Nooran said her husband racked up a debt of 10,000 rupees ($151) to Haider playing cards. Read the rest of this entry →

The fans were pious. The players bound for glory. And the victory? A miracle. Priests and seminarians from several soccer-loving countries took to a field near the looming dome of St. Peter’s Basilica Saturday for the first match of the Clericus Cup, a tournament fielding 16 teams from Catholic institutes in Rome.

“You are playing in view of St. Peter’s cupola, so behave well,” admonished Cardinal Pio Laghi before giving the official kickoff at a small arena on a hill overlooking the Vatican. Read the rest of this entry →

Real Madrid midfielder David Beckham has become unwittingly involved in regional Swiss politics after his photo was used to promote the election campaign of a former professional referee-turned politician.

The photo, carried by several Swiss newspapers last week, shows the former England captain shaking hands with Philippe Leuba ahead of a 2005 friendly between England and Argentina.

Leuba is standing in local government elections in the western Swiss region of Vaud and a thought bubble placed next to Beckham in the photo has the player supposedly wishing: “I hope you are just as impartial in the state parliament as you were on the football pitch.” Read the rest of this entry →