ATLANTA -- Don't look for Atlanta Braves pitcher Tom Glavine to be among the pitchers using the upper portion of Major League Baseball's newly expanded strike zone.

"I'm not going to pitch up there," the veteran left-hander said Friday at "Camp Leo," a pre-spring training conditioning camp put on each year by pitching coach Leo Mazzone. "If I'm up there, then I've made a mistake."

Sandy Alderson, vice president for baseball operations in the commissioner's office, announced the emphasis on the high strike Nov. 7 at the general managers meeting. He said he hoped the return of the strike zone as defined in the rule book would help bring baseball back to the way it used to be played.

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 midpoint between the belt buckle and shoulders.

"I think they just should let the umpires call it the way they've been calling it," said Braves first base coach Glenn Hubbard. "But they say baseball is a game of adjustments. The hitters will have to adjust their strike zone, and pitchers have been taught to keep the ball down, so they'll have to adjust."

The ever-shrinking strike zone has been blamed for slowing down games, which in 2000 were 5 minutes longer than the previous season. Conventional wisdom says by giving pitchers a larger target, there will be fewer walks, speeding up pace of play.

But it could also bring a surge of offense, according to Glavine and Hubbard.

"There's only a handful of guys that can get somebody out up there," Glavine said. "I don't have the stuff to do that. Normally, if you make a mistake up there, hitters take advantage of it."

Hubbard was more emphatic.

"There's guys in this league that will hammer you if you get it up," he said. "If you throw it up there, you'd better have something on it."

Braves reliever Kevin McGlinchy, a power pitcher, plans to take advantage of the bigger strike zone. "I'll take any help I can get to throw a strike," he said. "I'm kind of a high-ball pitcher, so if I have my good stuff up there, it should help me."

Hitters may have the harder time adjusting, he said.

"There may be some guys who end up being kicked out of some games for arguing balls and strikes," McGlinchy said with a grin.

There have been many attempts to restore the actual strike zone to the one defined in the rule book, but this one appears more serious. All 68 major league umpires took part in a training session last month where they practiced calling the higher strikes.