Baseball: Perfection Is the Problem

Jim Pattison, 39, used to be a baseball fan—until last week, when he traveled all the way from Vancouver to Houston to attend the 39th annual All-Star game "because I wanted to see the best hitters in baseball." Pattison in stead saw "the biggest bore of my life": a game in which both teams, between them, collected only eight hits and struck out 20 times. The only score came in the first inning, when San Francisco's Willie Mays singled, went to second on a muffed pick-off attempt, to third on a wild pitch,...