Miami Dolphins' Tony Sparano swears by tracking play counts.

Byline: Harvey Fialkov

Oct. 22--DAVIE -- Dolphins coach Tony Sparano is a baseball fan.

Perhaps that's why he keeps Rain Man-like track of snap counts for every one of his 53 players in a similar fashion that major league pitching coaches maintain a strict pitch count for their pitchers.

Sparano has every play count for each player memorized, not only per game, but per season, in an effort to keep his players fresh and ready to play at peak performance. Sparano believes it's most important to limit plays for defensive linemen, who are involved in violent collisions on nearly every play. Their snap counts often correlate with their age and …