Sherwood Schwarz's reign over the Toronto Argos is at an end, bringing to a close one of the darker chapters in the storied team's history.

While they've always been an integral part of the CFL and, as recently as a decade ago were a must-see team, the Boatmen have been financial schleps this century. Wise investors would run from a team like this.

Which got us thinking: wise investors haven't always been front-and-centre in the sports world. Better money has been spent on Darryl Strawberry's rehab than on some of these selections:

Three years ago the Texas Rangers raised the bar on baseball players salaries to ridiculous levels. Rangers owner Tom Hicks shocked fans and everyone else when he agreed to pay free agent Alex Rodriguez $252 million to play shortstop in Arlington for 10 years.

The idea: spend big bucks on baseball's best player and make him the centrepiece of a winning franchise. It hasn't worked.

The Rangers have finished in the cellar in the American League West the last two years and have lost 55 games more than they've won since A-Rod arrived. Attendance is off 11 per cent from last year and stands at about 55 per cent of the Ballpark’s capacity.

But don’t blame A-Rod, who has more than lived up to his part of the, er, bargain. So far the 20-million-dollar man has hit more than 120 homers and drove in close to 350 runs for the Rangers.

The problem? Not every ball the opposition hits goes to the shortstop. He isn’t very good with a catcher’s mask and mitt, and he doesn’t even have a 90-mph fastball. In short, the Rangers haven’t built around their centrepiece.

Oh sure, the team's payroll is around $100 million, but most of that money it tied up in a few expensive hitters, while the pitching staff (remember that part of the game?) has been ignored.

Rodriguez has played defence behind the likes of Doug Davis, Ryan Drese and Darren Oliver -- definitely not Hall of Fame material. Chan Ho Park, the Rangers’ one significant addition to the rotation, has been a bust. Since signing A-Rod, the Rangers' team ERA is a league-worst 5.52.

And now it appears Rodriguez has grown weary of all the losing. During a recent interview, the future Hall-of-Famer said he would consider a trade if he felt the Rangers failed to improve in the next few years.

Quick. Who was the 13th-highest paid player in the NBA last season? Jason Kidd? Nope. Vince Carter. Not even close. The answer is former Vancouver/Memphis Grizzlies big man Bryant (Big Country) Reeves.

Country hasn’t played in the league for more than two seasons, ever since chronic knee injuries forced him into early retirement. However, he was still collecting some mighty scratch last year. How much? Try $13 million US on for size.

One painful handshake: Reeves agrees to his stratospheric Grizzlies contract.

Reeves inked a six-year, $65-million US contract extension with the Grizz in 1997. Some observers have suggested the deal was the kiss of death for NBA basketball in British Columbia. forcing the franchise to seek greener pastures in Elvis country.

In fairness to Stu Jackson and the Vancouver brass, selecting Reeves sixth overall in the 1995 NBA Draft looked like an OK proposition at the time. The seven-footer was coming off an impressive collegiate career where he was named an All-American and was one of the top young centres in the game.

Despite showing spurts of promise in his first three seasons, Reeves struggled with the pro game. He couldn’t log the big-time minutes like many of his peers and his much-hyped soft touch vanished for games at a time.

The biggest knock on Country was his fitness level. His weight fluctuated at times and he fought through multiple knee and back ailments. The most famous incident occurred when he showed up almost 40 pounds overweight at the training camp before the lockout-shortened season.

His productivity took a nosedive in ’99 and he spent most of the year trying to get back in shape. The next two years saw the team’s highest-paid player dip even further in the stat department and his stock plummeted to new depths.

Meanwhile, Reeves and the Grizz stumbled through horrific losing streaks. Fan apathy set in and it wasn’t long before owner Michael Heisley decided to pack up shop and move the club to Tennessee, pushing teal Vancouver Grizzlies memorabilia to bargain bins across the Lower Mainland.

Reeves eventually retired, however at least one thing remains the same from his playing days. The Memphis Grizzlies continue to dwell among the NBA’s bottom-feeders.

Remember the Sacramento Gold Miners? How about the Memphis Mad Dogs? Or the Shreveport Pirates? With help from therapists, Canadian Football League fans have largely forgotten this experimental era in league history.

Back in the early 1990s, then-commissioner Larry Smith was convinced that expansion into the United States was crucial for the league's future.

That translated into a grandios dream for the financially-strapped CFL. He believed that if the United States started to develop an interest our unique brand of football, he could expand the league up to 24 teams, with nearly half of those coming from down south.

It started in 1993 with the Sacramento Gold Miners and the floodgates opened the next year, when teams were established in Baltimore, Birmingham, Las Vegas, Memphis, San Antonio and Shreveport.

But Americans didn't want to see a game that featured three downs and a wider field. With the exception of the Baltimore Stallions -- the only non-Canadian club to win the Grey Cup (1995) -- our neighbours stayed away in droves.

The lack of interest forced the league to disband every American franchise in 1996, putting an end to the experiment after only three seasons.

You've read the claims in the ads about it being the lightest stick in the world. You've heard from other players that it gives you a harder, faster shot.

But before you drive off to the sporting goods store in search for one of those composite hockey sticks, think again.

First off, it will make your wallet lighter. Averaging over $200, one composite stick is as expensive as six of its wooden counterparts.

That's a huge price to pay, especially since there is no guarantee that the stick will stay intact for the entire game, much less the season. As shown in this year's Stanley Cup playoffs, the composite stick has a way shorter life span compared to its predecessors and had the nasty habit of coming apart in crucial power play situations.

Contrary to popular belief, it won't make you the next Brett Hull of your rec league or turn your kid into the next Gretzky. Sure, it can add a little extra zip to your shot, but at the cost of developing skills. Since the stick is significantly lighter, it's harder to make a precise pass across ice and get a real feel for the puck.

A number of NHL players have that they can't stickhandle as well when they're using the new composites.

In 1999, British American Racing was readying to make its debut on the Formula One circuit after investing heavily Canadian racing hero Jacques Villeneuve.

At the time, Villeneuve was the darling of the F-1 world. The previouis year, while driving for the Williams team, he won seven of 17 races and the F1 Drivers Championship. That was on top of earlier victories in CART and the Indianapolis 500.

His deal with BAR is among the most lucrative in auto racing. According to reports, the native of Iberville, Que. will earn close to $20 million US this season. Only Ferrari driver Michael Schumacher makes more.

The difference is that Schumacher wins. A lot. He’s captured the last three F-1 titles, while Villeneuve hasn't won a race since September 1997. To be fair to the driver, BAR's cars haven't been the model of consistency -- mechanical problems have frequently sabotaged Villeneueve's best efforts.

And the losing has only made the already-outspoken Villeneuve even more petulant. He always seems to be feuding with his opponents, teammates and BAR's management.

Rumours abound that Villeneuve will leave BAR when his contract expires after the 2004 F-1 season.

The Montreal Olympics make an encore appearance in the Sports Online Top 10.

The ’76 Games were under consideration a few weeks back for the greatest downfall in Canadian sports history. Now the Olympics are in the running for another dubious distinction -- worst sports investment.

The numbers don’t lie. The cost overruns left the city with more than $1 billion in debt. Some of this financial legacy still costs the city’s taxpayers almost 30 years later.

Again, we point to former Montreal mayor Jean Drapeau’s 1973 declaration: "The Olympics can no more have a deficit than a man can have a baby."

Ever see that Arnold Schwarzenegger flick Junior?

There's an old saying around the NHL that the Rangers have more money than brains. The team's front office has done its best to promote that canard.

The Instigator knows the score on the Rangers' front office Click to view full image

The Rangers have followed a definite model when trying to build their team over the past 13 years. They find a player they like, usually through free agency, and then make him an outlandish offer he can't refuse.

The problem is, this method hasn't worked for the team since 1997, the last year they made the playoffs.

The buckets full of money the Rangers have handed over in recent years has translated into some of the worst team chemistry in the NHL and some whopping mistakes by general manager Glen Sather.

The Rangers thought they could handle Theo Fleury. Wrong. Thought Eric Lindros would once again be a dominating force. Wrong. Thought sniper Pavel Bure would be injury-free and add some offence. Wrong again. Rookie head coach Bryan Trottier was supposed to lead the Rangers back to the playoffs, but he didn't even last the season.

In investment terms, the Rangers are like Nortel: big company, big expenses, big mistakes.

If you ask a Boston Red Sox fan, the worst money ever spent in sports history was the $100, 000 Harry Frazee sunk into his Broadway musical No, No, Nanette.

Oh sure, the show was a hit -- it ran for years and was staged all over the world, but back in Boston fans of the Olde Towne Team still see red when Frazee's name is mentioned.

In addition to being a theatre impresario, Frazee was also the owner of the Red Sox and to finance shows he'd often sell off players. According to lore, to bankroll Nanette he peddled a popular pitcher to the hated New York Yankees.

As big a hit as No, No, Nanette was, The Babe was bigger.

That lefthander's name? Babe Ruth. The Curse of the Bambino was born.

Since Ruth first donned the pinstripes, the Yankees have gone on to 26 World Series. The Red Sox, winners of five of the first 15 World Series, have not won since. That’s more than eight decades of futility, including four Series appearances, losing all four in Game 7.

Frazee's defenders say the owner didn’t sell merely to finance the play. At the time of the deal Ruth was a troublemaker -- more boozer and brawler than the "Sultan of Swat." And No, No, Nanette didn't open until 1924, almost five years after Ruth had been moved.

Whether of not Frazee's preference for song and dance over balls and strikes led him to sell Ruth is uncertain, but the Red Sox nation points to that single event as the cause of close to a century's worth of heartache.

Remember when those Kevin Maas and Mike Ricci cards were going to put your kids through college and fund that trip around the world? Hate to be the bearer of bad news, friend, but those plastic-covered gems might be able to secure you a cup of coffee or -- even worse -- some penny candy.

The sports card market boomed in the early '90s. Collectibles shops popped up all over North American neighbourhoods. Companies cranked up production and released multiple sets, as kids (and kids-at-heart) from St. John’s to Campbell River coughed up their cash to snap up rookie cards in record numbers.

Problem was thousands of people had the same idea. With a flooded market and most of the same merchandise in circulation, the bulls gave way to the bears. The industry took a major hit, as cards from that era plunged in value or flatlined altogether. Many collectors abandoned ship in a hurry.

But not all sports collectibles are coaster-worthy. Many cards from the 1980s and earlier still fetch a premium. The reason is simple -- scarcity. Prior to the '80s, most kids put cards between bicycle spokes or flicked them at walls in games of chance. And that’s if they were lucky enough to avoid their moms tossing them out with the trash.

In an effort to satisfy Americans who couldn't make it through summer without football, the XFL was created to revolutionize the way the game was played. At least that's what its founder, WWE head honcho Vince McMahon, said.

Before its inaugural season started in 2001, it appeared the league would succeed. Not only did it have McMahon, one of the more shrewd businessmen in show business, but the league had a prime-time television contract with co-founder, NBC.

Sure, the XFL delivered on its promise of innovation. It scrapped the coin toss and had two players sprint 20 yards to capture the football; it allowed players to put anything they wanted on the back of their jerseys (He Hate Me becoming one of the enduring marks of the XFL) and introduced some new camera angles.

But in the end, the lack of talent kept fans away. They couldn't relate to the league's faceless unknowns. And the league wasn't sure if it wanted to be sport or spectacle, employing WWE personalities to commentate on the game.
By the time the XFL's hyped Million-Dollar Championship Game rolled around, nobody cared.

With losses amounting to $35 million each, McMahon and NBC mutually decided to fold the league in the summer.

Although it promised to have a long-lasting effect on football culture, the XFL turned out to be a just footnote in a page of the sport's history books.