SARASOTA, Fla. — The most fundamental rule of baseball is not a rule at all. It is a daily distortion, agreed-upon anarchy, a statute specifically stated yet erratically enforced. It is the strike zone.

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        Home plate is 17 inches wide, unless a pitcher as precise as Greg Maddux is on the mound. Then, the strike zone extends to an unfixed point somewhere between the outside corner and the on-deck circle.

        The zone's vertical dimension is at even greater variance. Its upper limit is defined as “a horizontal line at the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of the uniform pants,” but no major-league umpire actually calls it that way, and no two call it exactly the same.

        “There is no average strike zone,” Reds pitcher Pete Harnisch said. “Every umpire is going to be different.”

        For generations, every umpire has been different. Whether that will continue to be the case, however, is subject to change. A new baseball initiative seeks to standardize what has been random and restore balance to a game drifting toward Home Run Derby.

        In what is, perhaps, the game's most revolutionary development since the designated hitter, umpires are being instructed to stop calling them as they see them and start calling them as they are.

        Randy Marsh, the veteran umpire from Northern Kentucky, readily admits that what traditionally has been called in the big leagues is not what is called for in the rule book. The typical umpire's strike zone, he said, rises no higher than the top of a hitter's waistband. Though the strike zone described in the rules is a rectangle roughly 28-30 inches high (depending on the size and batting stance of the hitter), Reds pitcher Scott Williamson said its actual area is “the size of a shoe box.”

        Baseball's aim is to expand pitchers' vertical space while

        reducing the tendency to give them credit for pitches off the plate. The stated goals are to achieve greater consistency and facilitate faster play.

        Theoretically, a larger strike zone should force hitters to swing at pitches they habitually have taken. This would lead to more one- and two-pitch at bats, lowering pitch counts, lessening fatigue and eliminating some of those stultifying meetings on the mound.

        “With the strike zone compressed, guys have been able to take and get the count in their favor,” Reds manager Bob Boone said. “I think the hope is you're going to be less selective hitting. You're going to be swinging the bat or you're going to get in a hole.”

        While this probably would reduce the length of play — the average American League game was three hours last season; the National League 2:55 — it also could alter the balance between pitching and hitting. With more area to defend, hitters figure to have fewer chances to exploit favorable counts and more opportunities to guess wrong about a pitch's location.

        “I think it's going to be interesting and a lot more significant than a lot of people think,” Reds third baseman Aaron Boone said. “It might change a count three or four times a game. Instead of 2-1 (two balls and one strike), it's 1-2. That's going to have an effect. It has to.”

        Former Dodgers manager Tom Lasorda, whose first language is hyperbole, thinks the effect will be profound.

        “It's going to cut down run production, batting averages, home runs,” he said. “I expect the .300 hitters to be hitting .250. A guy hitting 50 home runs will probably hit maybe 30. If you've got a half-decent fastball, and you throw it up there (at the high end of the high strike), ain't nobody can hit it.”

        Though hitters may be forced to swing more freely (and, perhaps, more futilely), pitchers must remain cautious. Expanding the strike zone vertically may give pitchers a few calls they haven't traditionally had, but the high strike involves high risk. Reds shortstop Barry Larkin said it might even lead to more home runs.

        “Some guys will get away with it on occasion,” Reds pitching coach Don Gullett said. “But the ball in that area goes a long way.”

        “You can't bring any 86 (miles-per-hour) stuff in there,” said Reds outfielder Dmitri Young, “because you're going to get killed.”

        Conventional wisdom holds that the high strike will be of greatest benefit to power pitchers such as Roger Clemens, Randy Johnson, Pedro Martinez and Curt Schilling — guys who register in the upper 90s on the radar guns. Reds general manager Jim Bowden thinks it also might be advantageous to pitchers with average stuff and superior control, because they can consistently hit spots high in the zone and avoid its more dangerous middle. (Can Tom Browning's comeback be far behind?)

        St. Louis outfielder Jim Edmonds, advised of Lasorda's projections, argued that only a handful of pitchers have the stuff to survive in pitching above the belt.

        “If you get one out of 100 pitchers to say they're going to pitch up there, I'd be surprised,” Edmonds said. “There's maybe one guy on each staff — maybe the closer and one starter. But I don't think anyone on our team is going to.”

        Cardinals pitcher Dustin Hermanson specializes in the sinkerball. His game is getting hitters to swat the top half of the ball for ground-ball outs. He will continue to take aim at the knees, convinced the high strike amounts to the cowhide equivalent of Russian Roulette.

        “If you change your pitching style because they're changing the strike zone, you're falling into a trap,” he said. “We're taught to pitch down. If you make a mistake up there, it gets crushed.”

        How many pitchers elect to take that risk may depend on the largesse of individual umpires. Marsh said the instructions he is now expected to follow establish a strike zone about three baseballs above the belt. (His point of reference will be the hitter's elbow). Those umpires who make more liberal interpretations may tempt pitchers to try their luck.

        The goal, of course, is groupthink. This is one of the reasons why Major League Baseball removed umpires from league control last year and placed them all under the authority of the Commissioner's Office. It is why Sandy Alderson, the executive vice president for baseball operations, convened all 68 umpires in Chandler, Ariz., last month — to streamline the strike zone.

        When major-league umpires answered to separate league offices, it sometimes seemed as if they were operating in parallel universes. National League umpires wore their chest protectors inside their coats, and hunched down behind the catcher to protect their throats from foul balls. American League umpires wore the outside protector, and were consequently able to stand straighter. The difference in positioning gave the NL umps a better view of the low strike and made AL umps more sympathetic with the pitch up in the zone.

        Yet even after the inside protector became the industry standard, the pattern persisted. Larkin observed that those umpires with American League backgrounds are, “to a man,” more likely to call the higher strike.

        Players generally have accepted and adapted to the personal strike zones of individual plate umpires. Their main concern is consistency. If a particular pitch is deemed a ball in the first inning, hitters want to be sure an identical pitch won't be called a strike in the ninth.

        Pitchers complain periodically about getting “squeezed,” — not getting strikes on pitches that scrape the corners — but this is sometimes a function of the pitcher's stature rather than the umpire's disposition. Atlanta's Maddux and Tom Glavine, who rely on location instead of velocity, sometimes will get credit for a borderline pitch because of their consistency in hitting their target.

        Just as star basketball players are perceived to operate with some allowances on traveling, accomplished pitchers are said to get a higher percentage of the close calls. Similarly, great hitters tend to be rewarded for their reputation.

        One of the enduring anecdotes about Hall of Fame umpire Bill Klem concerns a confrontation between a young pitcher and Rogers Hornsby, he of the .358 lifetime average. Frustrated by Klem's refusal to call a strike, the pitcher complained.

        “Son,” Klem replied, “when you pitch a strike, Mr. Hornsby will let you know it.”

        When Ken Griffey Sr. broke into the Reds' regular lineup, he customarily hit second — between Pete Rose and Joe Morgan. Hitting between two proven and ar gumentative hitters, Griffey says the umpires continued to treat him as if he were a rookie until after the 1976 season.

        “Then,” he said, “my strike zone got a little smaller.”

        Implementing an expanded, universal strike zone will not be universally popular. Edmonds guessed there could be a 10 percent increase in ejections this season as players grapple with the new dimensions and/or their own diminished statistics. Many veteran players, having witnessed several short-lived strike zone initiatives, remain skeptical that baseball will stay this course if it becomes controversial.

        “A lot of guys don't know Sandy Alderson,” said Cardinals manager Tony LaRussa, who worked with Alderson in Oakland. “Sandy is very smart, very determined. If someone gives him an assignment, Sandy won't go away in 20 games.”

        “They're serious,” Bob Boone said, “as a heart attack.”

        Aaron Boone, the manager's son, regards the revisions without fear. He liked the high strike back when it was a ball.

        “The only time I've taken that pitch over the last three years is if I'm automatically taking,” he said. “They might as well call it a strike, because I'm swinging.”

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