"What Were They Thinking?" Awards -- October Edition

Working chronologically, we're suggesting the "Romance and Political Debates Don't Mix" Award goes to President Obama for his ill-advised shout-out to his wife for their anniversary at the start of the first Presidential Debate.

"There's a lot of points I want to make tonight but the most important one is that 20 years ago I became the luckiest man on Earth because Michelle Obama agreed to marry me. And so I just want to wish sweetie, you, a happy anniversary and let you know that a year from now we will not be celebrating this in front of 40 million people."

And I'd be remiss if I didn't have a Red Sox related award.  In fact, I have two, and both involve former Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine while we still can. The first is the "People in Glass Houses" Award which goes to Curt Schilling for lambasting Bobby Valentine's leadership of the Red Sox. HuffPost's Matt Yoder reported that Valentine may be joining ESPN as an analyst,  joking that he may want to have a conversation in the cafeteria with fellow analyst Curt Schilling. He added: ""Schilling destroyed Bobby V as "gutless" for "ruining the careers of his coaches" in a fiery rant. Because if there's anyone that knows about leading a group of people through hard times and not blaming others... it's Curt Schilling."  

Yoder summarized: "Maybe Schilling is just upset over having to sell his bloody sock to help pay off loans from the 38 Studios disaster."  Enough said.

And last but not least, the "Don't Burn Bridges" Award goes to Bobby Valentine, who decided to criticize the Red Sox beloved (if occasionally whiny) designated hitter, David Ortiz, in a post-firing interview. Valentine's contention is that Ortiz didn't come back from his injury after the blockbuster trade of pitcher Josh Beckett, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez, left fielder Carl Crawford and utility infielder Nick Punto to the Dodgers because he felt the Red Sox were out of contention. 

Valentine said, "He realized that this trade meant that we're not going to run this race and we're not even going to finish the race properly and he decided not to play anymore," Valentine said in an interview on "Costas Tonight" on NBC Sports Network. "I think at that time it was all downhill from there."

It's a pretty low blow to pick on Ortiz, especially when Valentine doesn't have a lot of successes to point to during his brief and painful year as manager.  Bobby, as my mother always said, "if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all."

Any awards we missed with this sweep?