Sound the cymbals and bang the drum, though not slowly. It’s time to announce the winner of my Sigh Young award.

This was not an easy choice. There were a lot of bad pitchers in baseball this year, as there are every year. But someone has to be designated the worst, and I’m up to the task.

There will be disagreement with my selection, and that’s all right. I imagine someone has even devised a new-fangled formula to show mathematically who is the worst, but it’s my award and I’ll do it any way I want.

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When I told Bob DuPuy five weeks ago that I had heard he was leaving Major League Baseball and asked him why, he said, “I’ve made no decision about leaving.” On Tuesday DuPuy announced that he was leaving.

The same day Gene Orza announced his retirement from his 26-year tenure with the Major League Baseball Players Association. Orza was the union’s first chief operating officer; DuPuy was Major League Baseball’s second c.o.o. He was also the president.

Though the announcements of their departure were coincidental, the circumstances of their departure are not similar.

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Walt Jocketty has too much class, is too much of a gentleman to thumb his nose, stick out his tongue and say to the St. Louis Cardinals and their principal owner, Bill DeWitt Jr., “na na na na na.” So I’ll do it for him: Na na na na na.

Dewitt deserves this rude treatment because three years ago, only a year after his Jocketty-built team won the World Series, he fired Jocketty. Now Jocketty’s new team, Cincinnati, is on the brink of dethroning the Cardinals as National League Central champions.

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