What? The Yankees? How can this be? When you spend that much, you should be winning World Series every year. Not only have the Yanks not won every year since 2000, but they’ve lost three straight.

I don’t need to go over the Yankees superstars—the team could probably give the NL All-Stars a run for their money. They’ve had the best first baseman, the best second baseman, one of the best shortstops, the best catcher, the best closer and the best starting pitching money can buy.

There is no excuse for their failure in recent years, even if they’ve won the American League-which hasn’t been easy. The Yankees nearly lost to the Red Sox this year and barely avoided first round collapses against the A’s in 2000 and 2001. And they did lose to the Angels in 2002.

The Yankees have been major disappointments, and it’s always glossed over. They spend one hundred billion dollars and need a miracle play by Derek Jeter to defeat the $40 million A’s in 2001.

They overpaid for Jose Contreras, Sterling Hitchcock, Chuck Knoblauch, Drew Henson, Raul Mondesi, Juan Acevedo—but unlike any other franchise, they’re able to make up for their many mistakes by just throwing more money at the fan until something sticks.

No. 3: New York Mets

Wow, what a terrible organization. The Mets made the World Series in 2000. Now, they are just a laugh riot of terrible, terrible moves.

Mo Vaughn, Jeremy Burnitz, Robbie Alomar, Tom Glavine, Kevin Appier. Just awful free agent signings. Add Mike Piazza’s injuries and Steve Phillips’ failure to sign Alex Rodriguez, Johnny Damon, Manny Ramirez, Mike Mussina, Juan Gonzalez or any other of the superstars that the Mets were seconds away from signing, and there’s no wonder why the Mets finish last.

There is no excuse for a team that can afford to shell out $100 million to finish at the bottom of the NL East. But the Mets find a way.

At least they finally parted ways with Armando Benitez. Now, if Roger Cedeno can just find a way to hit over .260...

No. 2: Portland Trail Blazers

They certainly have been blazed—just ask Damon Stoudamire, who tried to smuggle marijuana through an airport security checkpoint by placing his stash in the box that goes on the x-ray conveyer belt. Maybe not the best plan, Damon.

But of all the talented Blazers in the past four years, Damon’s been Portland’s model citizen.

Rasheed Wallace consistently leads the league in technical fouls and is suspended by the NBA nearly every year. Wallace, who was recently traded to the Detroit Pistons, has also been arrested for pot with Stoudamire. (Damon’s arrest is a yearly occurrence).

Ruben Patterson has twice been arrested on assault charges. Qyntel Woods was arrested for drugs. Zach Randolph was fined $100,000 and suspended two games for punching teammate Patterson’s lights out in practice.