Sept. 17th, Manhattan--Rabbis from the New York/New Jersey Rabbinical Counsel have asked Major League baseball to review its use of the term "sacrifice." They've suggested instead the league use the term "mitzvah."

The rabbis felt that "mitzvah" better captured the meaning of this "baseball strategy;" they preferred to see the term "sacrifice" reserved for more significant, heroic acts.

"You bunt a guy over to second to get him in scoring position," said Rabbi Solomon Rubin, of Temple Beth El. "Does your batting average go down? No. If your average went down, maybe it'd be a sacrifice. But it doesn't. You made an 'out,' but your average is unaffected. That's not a sacrifice, at least not in the true sense of the word."

"Same thing with a sacrifice fly," Rabbi Edward Golgfarb, of Brooklyn, contributed. "It's an even better example. Here, you're swinging all-out, selfishly. There happens to be a guy on third. You pop-up, maybe get the ball into short or mid-center. You make an out. A standard out.

"But the guy on third happens to tag-up because the center-fielder throws like a girl and he comes in to score, and so what happens to the batter's average? Nothing. It stays the same. So, you get the RBI, and your batting average doesn't budge. I don't call that a sacrifice. I call it a gift."

"We get the idea behind the logic," said Rabbi Ben-Gurion Goldman Hersch, of Scarsdale. "We just think that what are now called 'sacrifices' more accurately reflect 'mitzvahs.' When a guy lays down a bunt to move his teammate to second, he's performing a mitzvah; in other words, it's a nice deed he's doing but lacks the weight of a true sacrifice. "

The Rabbis agreed as a group that a real sacrifice might entail "taking a Bartolo Colon fastball in the head…just to get on-base." Or, facing Randy Johnson, to crowd the plate and call him "a big pussy."

The Rabbis planned no further action if their suggestion was ignored. A spokesman from the Commissioner's office said it would be.