Baseball vowed Tuesday to bring back the high strike next season. Sandy Alderson, executive vice-president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, hopes the return of the strike zone as defined in the rule book will help bring baseball back to the way it used to be played.

It's been the view of people for a long time that the strike zone in the rule book is being interpreted by individual umpires in a variety of different ways, Alderson said Tuesday at the general managers meetings. We're looking to bring uniformity back, eliminate a lot of the interpretation and go back to the rule book.

According to the rule book, a pitch should be called a strike if any part of a ball crosses over any part of home plate, and if the pitch is between the hollow of the knee and the mid-point between the belt buckle and shoulders.

With certain exceptions, nothing above the belt has been called a strike, Alderson said. In some cases, nothing touching the belt has been called a strike. That's what we're looking to change.

Twenty-two younger umpires are working in Arizona this month on skills, including calling the strike zone as it is written in the rule book.

All the umpires will meet again in January to go over the new strike zone and they will meet with players in February.

If it is called consistently in spring training, it won't take long for players to adjust, Alderson said.

Tampa Bay manager Larry Rothschild thinks the individual strike zones are part of the nuance of the game. But expanding the zone will help pitchers and bring some balance back.

Any time you increase the area of the strike zone, it has an adverse effect on offence because the hitter has more to deal with, Rothschild said.

Alderson also hopes it will help speed up the game. Games during the regular season averaged 3 hours, 2 minutes, five minutes longer than 1999. Post-season games pushed well past that barrier, routinely edging to and past the four-hour plateau.

The time of game is an issue that we need to address, not one we need to highlight, Alderson said. We can get the time down appreciably without making major changes.

While increased offence and smaller strike zones have contributed to game length, Alderson wants to tackle the other factors.

He noted that many players don't even leave the on-deck circle until after their theme music is played over loud speakers. Some players then step out between every pitch to adjust their batting gloves, helmet and uniform.

Only then is the next pitch hurled.

I thought of Mike Hargrove, the human rain delay, Alderson said of the Baltimore manager, who was notoriously slow at the plate during his career. Compared to some of the guys today, he'd set a land-speed record.

While much of the focus of this week's meetings is on free agents and trades, the GMs are also discussing issues like strike zone, time of game, body armour, the height of the mound and how to break three-way ties for the playoffs.

- Pitchers have often complained that hitters wearing protective equipment on their arms and elbows dive over the plate without fear, taking both the inside and outside corner away from the pitcher. Alderson said the issue will be discussed with the players' association.

Body armour has become offensive, not defensive, he said. Players should be able to protect their elbows without a Roman shield.

- GMs will discuss raising the height of the mound in the Arizona Rookie League on a trial basis. The lowering of the mound after the 1968 season, helped usher in a greater offensive era.

This was discussed last year to possibly implement it on an experimental basis at the minor league level to see what the consequences would be on offence and injuries, Alderson said.

- Alderson said that the GMs once again voted to change the way three-way ties are broken after the season.

In the current form, if two teams finished tied for the division and with the same record as the best second-place team in another division, the second-place team automatically gets the wild card berth. The other teams play a one-game playoff, with the winner getting the division title and the loser staying home.

GMs have argued that is unfair. The union, which must approve any change, is against delaying the start of the playoffs and eliminating off days in the first round to allow for the extra day to break the tie.