Sports briefs

Maddux, Furcal earn NL honors

ATLANTA (AP) - Atlanta Braves' right-hander Greg Maddux won his 11th-consecutive Gold Glove yesterday, extending his record for National League pitchers. Only Jim Kaat, with 16, has won more.

Ken Griffey Jr. failed to win in his first season with Cincinnati after winning 10 in a row with the Seattle Mariners.

San Francisco Giants first baseman J.T. Snow won his sixth straight award, and Braves outfielder Andruw Jones won for the third time in a row.

Rafael Furcal was voted National League Rookie of the Year in a landslide. Furcal, who hit .295 with 40 steals in 54 chances, received 25 of 32 first-place votes in balloting by the Baseball Writers' Association of America.

Meet the owners: Baseball vowed yesterday to bring back the high strike next season.

Sandy Alderson, executive vice president of baseball operations in the commissioner's office, hope 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.

"We're looking to bring uniformity back, eliminate a lot of the interpretation and go back to the rule book."