I just think it’s a nothing statement. Ten minutes after he loses a huge game, he’s not talking contracts or anything else. It was pretty clear he didn’t feel like talking to the press at that moment throughout the session.

It’s like…looking too deep into how someone puts their hat on the table.

i would never send flowers to him, but it’s awful when a freak accident like that happens and just takes a very bright future away.

i own 3 cats, and i love them dearly. i understand that no one else gives a shit about my cats. there are plenty of other cats who have much harder lives and are much more deserving of sympathy than my cats. yet i still love my cats.

i do think mighty mjd is right about the silliness of the get well cards, and that there are other less talented horses who don’t get as much love. barbaro is one lucky horse.

the point is that he’s a celebrity (though there are other much more talented hosrses–like the late ruffian and silky sullivan, for example) and as an animal he seems a lot “purer” than most people. i’m not trying to justify the cards sent to the horse, but you don’t watch an exciting race and expect a horse breaking down and losing his life, especially on a stage that big.

it’s like a person dying of a heart attack–what hits people more: a homeless guy dying in his sleep on a park bench, or an athlete dying of a heart attack while playing basketball on national tv.

of course, the athlete gets more sympathy and attention, unfair as that is. they’re both people. one was old and at the end of his line, another was in the bloom of his youth. yet one inevitably makes more ripples in our consciousness.

one commentor on mighty mjd complained about how we relate to tragedy and 9/11. civilian deaths don’t affect many americans until 9/11 happened. in the larger scheme of things, there are many many people around the world who die in tragedies like that–but most of us can’t bring ourselves to care because these dead people are not american (which is not good).

so i guess what i was trying to say that the importance of barbaro is all relative, yet not necessarily frivolous. yes, who really cares about a horse. but at the same time, the same coudl be said of a young man getting paid to play a child’s game. in the larger scheme of things, as much as i love lebron james, he’s just getting paid to play a child’s game. he’s not curing cancer, he’s not standing up for human rights. and people still care so much about him.

That “we’ll see what happens” is a lot more non-committal then “I can’t wait to sign my extension.” Maybe he’s made it clear in the past, but it’s comments like this that make people wonder.