I can’t remember how I came across this article, but it’s been burning a digital hole in my “Stuff” bookmarks folder waiting to be shared. Tim Marchman, a baseball columnist for the New York Sun and Senior Editor of The New Partisan, penned a piece called “The Last Word on Baseball Writing. Period. End of story. Full stop.” that challenges baseball writers to create more passionate journalism that better captures the spirit of the game.

Between the lines, baseball is the greatest game ever invented. What is fascinating in a game is a 1-1 slider gone horribly awry, a mispositioned fielder who nonetheless makes a diving stop, a batter leaving himself over the plate long enough to block a pickoff throw without getting called for interference. Little of this ever ends up in a game write-up; instead there are warriors who gave 110% one day at a time. Full stop. End of story.

This, of course, is true. Some baseball writers undoubtedly do a better job of capturing their game’s nuances than most, but there are still opportunities for improved accounts. I have been attempting to incorporate some of Marchman’s suggestions into my Daily Brew column at BrewerFan.net, and so far it has been a difficult but rewarding experiment. Why should we care about the quality of our baseball writing?

It seems self-evident to me that fostering an interest in the game itself, and not the people who play it — who are neither more nor less likely to be interesting than anyone else — is in the game’s best interests.

The internet has provided thousands of die-hard baseball fans with an unparalleled opportunity to write about the game they love and the teams the follow. We should all strive to convey our passion for this wonderful pastime with clarity and the confidence to let the game speak for itself. “The public — who knows?,” Marchman concludes, “might even find it interesting.”