In the Baseball Writers Association voting for the American League Cy Young award, David Price and CC Sabathia received a combined 25 percent of the first-place votes. As meager as that showing might have been, they did better than I did. I got not quite half their total, 12 percent.

No, I was not running against Felix Hernandez, not literally, at least. But I was figuratively because last week I wrote in this space that the Seattle pitcher should not win the award.

Even though Hernandez had terrific numbers for earned run average, opposing batting average, strikeouts and innings pitched, he won only 13 games, I wrote. It would not be a good idea, I explained, to give him the award and lower the standard for wins for a starting pitcher even further than they were last year when Tim Lincecum won the National League award with 15 wins and Zack Greinke the American with 16.

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It would be at about this time in her old “Saturday Night Live” sketches that Gilda Radner as Emily Latella would say, “Never mind.”

That statement, uttered with a look of embarrassment on her face, was Ms. Latella’s reaction to something she had misunderstood and went on babbling about until she was corrected.

In this instance, in the best tradition of Emily, I will say “never mind.” I will also say “oops.”

Those remarks are my reaction to my last column, which turned out to be my fantasy tale of the year. I have spent my entire career believing that the best way to deal with a mistake is acknowledging it and correcting it, both as quickly as possible.

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The standard for wins by an American League pitcher was lowered to 16 last year. It is about to be lowered even further – to 13. That’s the number of games Felix Hernandez won this past season, and I expect he will be announced Thursday as the A.L. Cy Young award winner.

I could be wrong, of course, and I hope I am, but if I am, I will be surprised. By the time you read this, you may know if I am right or wrong.

I have no inside information on which to base my belief. I have not surveyed the voters. I don’t even know who the voters are, and I wouldn’t try to find out. I base my belief on what has been floating around about Hernandez and his season statistics.

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