My day business demand a certain care be pay to Apple and it assort hardware and software offerings . When I ’m off the clock , though , opportunity are I ’m dedicate a fair share of my attention to baseball . ( Occasionally , this happens when I’monthe clock , too — shhhhhhh , do n’t tell the genus Bos . ) So it ’s always a modest quiver for me when my two existence clash .

Such was the case earlier this workweek whenESPN.comranthis Jayson Stark columnon how a bit ofColorado Rockiesplayers have turn their iPods into handheld video reconnoitring tool . Writes Stark :

It was n’t even a video iPod , either . Just your canonic Nano . But all it took was some initial fooling around with it to get Jones thinking there might be more to this fascinating gadget than the ability to download the Red Hot Chili Peppers on it .

So Jones and his TV cohort , Mike Hamilton , did some iExperimenting to see if it might be possible to stretch their baseball videos on this cool little contraption .

Of course , it is potential to win over video for the iPod usingiSquintor the various flavors ofHandbrake . And this tarradiddle about the Rockies ’ exercise of video recording iPods is hardly break off news — it first began circulating on the wireslast summertime . So what ’s changed since then ?

Plenty , grant to Stark :

Crazy as in one Rockies player after another request to join the iPod Video Club .

Crazy as in lend venial leaguers , and even amateurs , to the iPod video hit aggregation for the development masses and front office .

Crazy as in other team reading , try and inquire about this , then spreading the illusion to their musician .

Crazy as in [ the Miami Heat ’s ] Pat Riley instructing his video recording guy to call and crack this out .

Crazy as in Hamilton and Jones being honored by their fellow telecasting coordinators with the 2006 Award of Excellence — and give way a tutorial workshop — at the wintertime get together .

Of fussy interest is the chronicle of Jason Jennings , a starter pitcher who accredit the knowledge cull from watching videos of his delivery on the iPod ’s 2.5 - inch screen with change by reversal around his time of year after a lackluster scratch . Jennings is moving from Colorado to theHouston Astrosfor the 2007 season ; presumptively , he ’s take aim his iPod habit along with him . And , break the peripatetic life-style of today ’s Major League Baseball , I expect this kind of behavior to spread from Fenway to Petco Park as instrumentalist move from team to team . ( Indeed , Stark reports that he ’s found player on the Phillies , Marlins , Mariners , Indians , and Red Sox either had used the iPod to prepare for game or were look in to doing so . )

And with pitchers and catchers report in a little more than two weeks , this excites me more than it probably should . Do I expect to head out to the ballpark this coming time of year and see hitters gathered around the coop during batting practice session to study hand-held footage of that nighttime ’s probable starter ? Or , once the plot starts , am I planning on catching a glimpse of reliever out in the bullpen , iPods in mitt and study clip of their retiring visual aspect against the opponent ’s fear slugger ? No … but it will bereally coolwhen it does happen .