When it comes to success in professional sports, no major North American city fared as poorly as Toronto did in the 2000s.

Yesterday we journeyed back in time and watched the Maple Leafs fail again and again in the 2000s. It was like reading Twilight over and over and hoping it would succeed at not being terrible.

But that's the Leafs right? You expect them to be terrible, but they were pretty much the standard for which all our other sports teams in this city could only match.

The Blue Jays last World Series pennant back in 1993 is starting to feel as far away as 1967. The Raptors best move in the 2000s was getting rid of those purple Barney-like uniforms.

But our Lacrosse team was great!

Without further ado, we begin a look back at the non-hockey sports in Toronto over the past decade.

A blue Blue Jays decade

As I write this on a tear-drenched keyboard, Roy Halladay -- arguably the best pitcher the Toronto Blue Jays have ever had -- has just been traded. The decade has not been kind to Jays fans.

Let's start with the positive -- Doc Halladay was awesome, the only consistent part about the Blue Jays besides the Skydome, I mean, Rogers Centre. Halladay, since his 2002 breakout year, was the team's hardest worker and gave the team, even when they were absolutely rotten, a chance to win.

Halladay could be frighteningly dominant, winning the Cy Young in 2003 and finishing in the top five in voting for the award for four straight years. Halladay was a fierce competitor and would skip starts so he would pitch against the tough teams like the Boston Red Sox or the New York Yankees. He gave the Jays two home-town discounts during contract negotiations. He was loyal, played his heart out and never complained even when the team stunk and former GM J.P. Ricciardi hung him out to dry.

Halladay was the Toronto athlete of the decade, and it is a real shame on this city that there was more attention given to a very good, but not great, player like Sundin or me-first guys like Vince Carter or Chris Bosh. OK, rant over.

Now let's get back to rest of the Jays decade, the initial years under GM Gord Ash, who proved he could draft decent and that's about all. In 2000, the Jays only missed the wild card spot by 4 1/2 games, led by a monster season by Carlos Delgado.

Then Rogers Communications bought the team in Sept. 2000, and Jays went under .500 the next year, leading to Ash being canned after six years on the job and then hotshot Oakland Athletics' director of player development and "Moneyball" specialist J.P Ricciardi being hired as the new GM.

Competing in the AL East, Rogers was initially unwilling to spend with the Yankees or the Red Sox, and the hiring of a guy who was supposed to help the team compete on much less cash made sense at the time.

In 2003, the team went 86-76 on the strength of Delgado, a burgeoning Vernon Wells and Halladay's best season. Things seemed to be looking up, but the following two seasons were disappointing to say the least. Injuries seemed to strike the Jays best players at will and the pitching and hitting could never seem to get hot at the same time. After 2004, Delgado left for free agency and in 2005, a freak injury to Halladay came at the worst possible time as the team was still in the playoff hunt.

I still vividly remember the 2006 season opener at the ballpark as there was a real sense of optimism that the Jays were going to finally compete again. Rogers finally realized that "Moneyball" wasn't going to win games and decided to open the vault. Off-season acquisitions of Tory Glaus, Lyle Overbay, A.J. Burnett, and B.J. Ryan, combined with young talent like Alex Rios and Aaron Hill had us all thinking playoffs.

Unfortunately, the most memorable part of the season was when manager John Gibbons got into a fistfight with pitcher Ted Lilly and that was after challenging clubhouse cancer Shea Hillenbrand to throw down earlier in the year. The Jays did finish second in the AL East however with a 87-75 record, edging the Red Sox by one game.

Then Ricciardi signed Vernon Wells to a seven-year, $126 million contract, one of the worst deals in sports history unless Wells suddenly starts walking on water and hitting 40 homers a year. Another forehead slapping deal was made for Frank Thomas, who was later paid about $10 million to strike out and walk slowly elsewhere.

Closer Ryan got hurt, or got terrible, or something. Whatever. He was bought out with $15 million left. No wonder my cellphone bill is ridiculous.

Rios was given a $70 million, seven year deal in 2008 and by the next year, was waived by the franchise.

Is there a pattern here?

Ricciardi was fine working on a shoestring, but give him too much cash, he spent like a drunken sailor on shore leave who just hit it big at the casino. No offence to drunken sailors, intended.

Unfortunately, and I say this with all respect intended, the highlight of the last two years of the decade for Blue Jays fans may have been the return of Cito Gaston. It's pretty bad when the fans cheer more for the manager than anyone on the field.

Gaston did manage to coax the Jays into playing above their ability, but it doesn't matter who's at the helm of the Titanic after it's already hit the iceberg.

That being said, by the end of the 2009 season, a coup was staged against Gaston by the players, who apparently felt their feelings had been hurt. Baseball Players with Low Self-Esteem, indeed.

Gaston said he's only returning for the 2010 season, though the season may test his limits and our patience, as he's never been known for his work with the younger players.

As the decade turns, unless Major League Baseball implements a salary cap to bring the Yankees and Red Sox down to the Jays spending level, a series of minor miracles will have to take place for another World Series parade on Yonge St. Does new GM Alex Anthopoulos have what it takes to turn water into wine? Can he repair a weak farm system, find a starting pitcher who hasn't had Tommy John surgery, make Vernon Wells' contract go away and bring back an increasingly restless fan base?

Any Jays fans need a drink now?

Booooo! (Vince Carter has the ball)

It may seem like a distant memory, but there was a time that the Toronto Raptors were rolling into the playoffs year after year, and Vince Carter was not only the most popular guy in town, he was the most popular player in the league.

Funny what a few years can do.

After the typical first few years of post-expansion futility, the Raptors made the playoffs in three consecutive seasons, starting with the 1999-2000 season, led by the high-flying Carter.

In 2002, the Raptors made it to the second round of the playoffs, where they lost in a thrilling game seven to the Philadelphia 76s, when Carter's potentially game-winning shot clanked off the rim. This was the high-water mark of the decade.

Following the loss, VC was roundly criticized for attending his grad ceremony at the University of North Carolina earlier in the day of Game 7.

From this moment on, Carter would begin his long march to becoming the most unpopular athlete in recent Toronto history. Often-injured, Toronto fans questioned his work ethic and eventually he demanded a trade.

The trade was a double-whammy for Raptor fans. Carter went to the New Jersey Nets for the injured Alonzo Mourning, Eric Williams, Aaron Williams and a draft pick who turned out to be the illustrious Joey Graham.

Bad deal already. Then, following the lead of several other NBA players, Mourning refused to report to the team, forcing general manager Rob Babcock to buy him out for $10 million. Spoiler alert: Babcock is going to lose his job.

Then, literally adding insult to injury, Carter made comments after his trade about not trying his hardest in Toronto during his last few years. He would never again touch a basketball at the Air Canada Centre without being viciously booed.

The lone bright spot in the mid-2000s was that the Raptors got so pathetic, they were able to draft Chris Bosh at #4 in the 2003 draft year.

But Babcock was just being Babcock the next year and drafted mega-bust Rafael Ara�jo with the number eight pick with guys like Al Jefferson and Josh Smith left on the board.

Yeah, he gets canned.

In Feb. 2006 Bryan Colangelo and his vast selection of fine Italian suits arrived in Toronto amide an epic sea of hype to take over as general manager and president of the organization.

Colangelo got a boatload of karma right off the bat, winning the number one draft pick in the 2006 lottery. That was the good karma -- the bad karma was that it was a rare year in which there wasn't a consensus number one guy to build a team around, and the Raptors ended up drafting the Italian enigma, Andrea Bargnani.

A seven-footer with the ball skills of a point guard, Bargnani has been occasionally sublime, just good enough to make you reach for the Prozac when he goes through long stretches of basketball without the ability to defend.

Colangelo put his stamp on the team early, bringing in players that he hoped could run-and-gun like his former team, Phoenix.

He traded away rising talent Charlie Villanueva for point guard T.J. Ford, and signed players from the European leagues, such as Anthony Parker and Jorge Garbojosa.

With Spaniard Jose Calderon already on the roster, the Raptors were now easily the most European team in the NBA, giving the team a little more Canadian appeal by being less American.

In the first full year of the Colangelo era, the Raptors clinched their first Atlantic Division title, and Sam Mitchell won coach of the year, and Colangelo, executive of the year.

Of course, the 2007 playoffs went largely the way they always did, with the Raptors losing in the first round to Carter (booo!) and the New Jersey Nets.

After the initial wave of walking on water praise surrounding Colangelo, the Raptors have stumbled towards the end of the decade. The 2008-2009 season was a disaster that saw Mitchell fired and his Canadian assistant Jay Triano hired as coach.

T.J. Ford was traded away for Jermaine O'Neal, a bitter disappointment who was quickly traded away for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks' ridiculous contract. Note to Colangelo: I am willing to sit on the bench for $4 million less than Banks.

Marion was shipped away essentially for Antoine Wright and Marco Bellinelli and Raptors fans wouldn't be wrong to think that Colangelo's master plan was starting to resemble a Jackson Pollack painting. Just throw random players on the floor and hope for a masterpiece.

Rolling into 2010, the Raptors are in state of flux. Bosh has been playing like a mad man this year, which is not a shocker considering it's a contract year. There is no guarantee he is coming back next year, and with the Raptors playing as poorly as they are, there may be little incentive for the self-promoting Bosh to stick around in T.O.

Picture a future with Bargnani as our franchise player. Yup, good times ahead for the Raptors.

At least our mascot is awesome.

Wait, there's more sports in Toronto?

Just kidding, MLS and CFL fans. And you too, Toronto Rock fan.

The arrival of the Toronto FC in 2007 has been one of the few outright successes in Toronto sports this decade, although that success has been in the stands, not so much on the pitch.

This December the team announced that for third straight year, the 16,000 season tickets available have been sold out. Thousands of fans are on the waiting list of tickets, and MLSE is looking at expanding the 20,000 seat BMO field to take advantage of the MLS's most rabid fan base.

Toronto's multicultural heritage, with many in our city coming from places where footie is a religion (i.e. not the U.S), has given the FC a passionate crowd that is the envy of its league and shames the suits at Leafs games.

The highlight of the FC's short time happened in Montreal earlier this year, when the FC went into a game against the Montreal Impact, needing to win by four goals to take the Canadian soccer championship.

Amazingly, the FC managed to win 5-1 to take the championship, a huge surprise considering the team's offensive record was four goals in a single game.

That being said, the FC have yet to make the MLS playoffs but the hiring of 2007 MLS coach of the year Preki in November 2009 has many fans feeling optimistic about 2010.

As for that other football, the Toronto Argonauts brought the only major piece of hardware to the city when nice guy Michael "Pinball" Clemens' team defeated the BC Lions in the 92nd Grey Cup in 2004.

In 2006, the team signed troubled NFL star Ricky Williams in a high-profile move, but the team stumbled in the playoffs, losing in the East Championship. The following year the team fell once again in the East's deciding game.

In 2008, the Argo's ageless wonder of a quarterback, Damon Allen, retired after an astonishing 22 years in the CFL. It was a smart move as the Argos had a horrible season that year, missing the playoffs and losing nine straight.

It was a season most easily remembered for when slotback Arland Bruce III pulled a Spiderman mask out of his pants to celebrate a touchdown. Evidently, he forgot he had scored against the Hamilton Tiger-Cats, which is sort of like celebrating when you put your socks on.

The less said of the 2009 season the better, as the team finished dead last at 3-15 in their division. But serious uncertainty abounds heading into the off-season.

Co-owners David Cynamon and Howard Sokolowski have said they are mulling selling the team, and the CFL shot down plans to move the team from the cavernous Rogers Centre to the much smaller BMO field.

The team also fired head coach Bart Andrus this month, leaving the team searching for a coach this off-season. Things could be worse though, they could have hired Mike Kelly.

The Argos are also facing competition in the form of the NFL's Buffalo Bills, who signed up to play eight games at the Rogers Centre over five years.

Fortunately for the Argos, the NFL games have so far been miserable and there doesn't seem to be much momentum in Roger's bid to buy the Bills and fan support has been tepid.

Maybe it has something to do with average prices being US $183 for the games, verses $51 in Buffalo. Maybe it has something to do with a tailgate party that makes you pay about $10 bucks to drink a beer inside a tent and makes you leave your grill at home. Or maybe it's because the Bills are a rubbish football team, and Torontonians expect winners.

Okay, that last point was totally sarcastic. But behold, I have found a way to end this piece positively!

Now Wikipedia tells me that Toronto was home to a sports dynasty in the form of the Toronto Rock. Apparently, they won four championships in the 2000s, while playing at the Air Canada Centre.

But I don't believe it, it must be one of those Wiki lies. No one wins championships here.