Not sure why the syntax is so different from Vimeo iframe api.
For Vimeo after you create iframe the same way as above, you get the player reference like so:
vimeoPlayer = Froogaloop(videoIFrame[0]);
and thats it, you just listen for ‘ready’ event and you can use it.
But for youtube it goes like this:
http://apiblog.youtube.com/2011/01/introducing-javascript-player-api-for.html
I am not sure if this event onYouTubePlayerReady is going to be heard from jQuery.