Sports Thread #3 for 6/3/09: Is Tom Glavine Career Over; Sammy Sosa Retiring Officially; Kaka is Going To Either Real Madrid Or Chelsea

Quick hits on the final sports thread of the day, as big names in baseball are in or almost at retirement stage right now in their careers.

On the day they get Nate McLouth, The Atlanta Braves released their future Hall of Fame pitcher Tom Glavine, who is clearly at the end of his tremendous career despite pitching sixth scoreless innings in a Class A rehab start. The move, lead by GM frank Wren has caused a major shock because of that, and it has clearly made Glavine angry.

"He wants to pitch. He feels great," Gregg Clifton said to Olney. "He's still shocked about being released by a team he's been a member of, and he's not prepared to retire. He looks forward to pitching again in 2009."

Glavine was still trying to deal with what appeared to be another bitter split from the Braves.

"We gave him the option, 'If you want to retire, you can retire as a Brave," Wren said. "He asked us to release him."

There's no question however on how Sammy Sosa's feeling. He is hanging it up for good.

Moving on to soccer, and the big news today is centering around where the terrific Kaka' is going. One of the true gentleman of the game, the soon to be former AC Milan superstar is either headed to Real Madrid or Chelsea. it seemed that it would be a given that the Brazilian was headed to the Spanish giants, in need of a big move after enduring their rivals Barcelona winning a historic Treble in their faces. But today, it was announced that Chelsea have made a record move for Kaka', a report that they have strongly denied. More on this tomorrow.

Once again, with Bob Bradley as the coach, United States soccer, no matter how talented the players get, will still be mediocre. That match against Costa Rica was an embarrassment. Total embarrassment.

It's getting even more weird, bizarre, and ridiculous with that Memphis basketball decision.

Until his team starts winning and they become relevant again, I'm going to call him Chad Johnson still.

It's not a surprise that Shaq is all behind Kobe. He really can't stand Stan van Gundy right now, fueled from this for those who don't remember: