It would seem the Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz is something of a computer nerd. According to the New York Times, Ortiz is a "slave to the laptop," spending his off time during games reviewing his at bats in video playback.
The Times doesn't offer many clues as to what sort of software Ortiz is using, but claims he has access to not only the footage of recent at-bats, but also video of every time he has faced a particular pitcher and can even narrow by specific type of pitch. That likely means either the software has some really good search features, or someone on the Red Sox staff has some outstanding file organizational skills — tagging anyone?
The Times reports:
Ortiz tells the Times, “I think the best thing that ever happened to the baseball game is the video, the quick highlight or whatever is happening out there.”
Naturally Ortiz isn't the only one looking at video, the Times claims that nearly all players use the video, though it's more popular with designated hitters since they have the downtime during the game to watch video.
There's no question technology is changing sports, sometimes for the better sometimes perhaps for the worse. And change almost never comes without controversy, for instance check out the Wired report on Olympic hopeful Oscar Pistorius.
For his part Ortiz seems to have embraced the video technology for what it is — another tool. Of course it doesn't seem to have helped the Red Sox lately, but that's an entirely different matter.
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