HIS YOUNGER DAYS, JOCKO CONLAN, THE LATE HALL OF FAME UMPIRE, WAS A popular after-dinner speaker at various sporting functions in the Chicago area. And, occasionally, he would amuse his audience with a favorite story about the difficulty of making the right call on the field.

His story went something like this:

"The count was one ball and one strike on the batter. The next pitch comes in, appears to shave the corner of the plate, and the umpire shouts 'Two!' The batter says, 'Two, what?'

"The umpire says, 'Too close to call.'"

Conlan's fabricated yarn reminds us that sometimes making the correct call in a baseball game isn't all that easy. His story is ...

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