Because the present reality of Major League Baseball can be adequately described as "not great," indulging in a little nostalgia is really the only way to feel good about baseball right now.

So, what's say we treat ourselves with a look back at MLB's 2001 season?

Talk about a season that had it all. Most famously, a historic home run outburst and one of the most incredible World Series ever played. There were also extraordinary individual seasons aplenty, as well as a whole menagerie of awesome, weird, cathartic and generally memorable moments.

We would go through all of it if we could, but we figured it was best to compromise with a list of 20 amazing things from the 2001 season. They are presented here in no particular order, though we did think it appropriate to start with a bang.

That Barry Bonds Season Happened

Now, "bang." Barry Bonds made that noise a lot in 2001.

Specifically, in the 73 instances that he hit the ball over the fence to break Mark McGwire's three-year-old record for home runs in a season. His relentlessness knew no bounds, as he homered in all but two of the parks he played in and against all but one of the San Francisco Giants' opponents.

The lesser-known aspect of Bonds' prodigious dingering in '01 is that he also broke Babe Ruth's record for slugging percentage in a season, set in 1920. Not bad, considering that was the year that Ruth out-homered every American League team except the one he played for.

Granted, it later came to light that Bonds used performance-enhancing drugs to turn himself into the ultimate home run honcho. But as with all superhero media, his '01 season is nonetheless enjoyable if you ignore the artifice and appreciate it for what it is.

That Sammy Sosa Season Also Happened

Speaking of prolific home run hitters from the 2001 season, it was then that Sammy Sosa found himself in an all-too-familiar position as he also specialized in yardwork.

The Chicago Cubs star ended 2001 with 64 home runs of his own, marking the third time that he had crossed the 60-homer threshold. He's the only player ever to do that…and yet because of McGwire in 1998 and 1999 and Bonds in '01, Sosa was the league's leading home run hitter in none of those years.

However, Sosa actually did set a home run record in 2001. He became the first (and is still the only) player to record three games with as many as three home runs within a single season.

Which brings us to some bonus trivia! There were a record-setting 22 three-homer games in 2001, including the only instance of teammates doing it in the same game. Take a bow, Jeromy Burnitz and Richie Sexson.

That Roger Clemens Season Happened

It wasn't all about the dingers in 2001. There was also some great pitching that year, including by two legends who won their sixth and fourth Cy Young Awards, respectively.

The former is Roger Clemens, who won his Cy Young on the American League side the old fashioned way: by racking up wins.

Clemens' 20-1 start for the New York Yankees in '01 was the first of its kind. Those 20 wins also made the then-38-year-old just the third pitcher to win as many as 20 games in three different decades, as well as the oldest pitcher to do so in the AL since 1959.

Come the end of the regular season, Clemens "sunk" to 20-3 after losing his last two decisions. But he made up for that in the playoffs, wherein he pitched to a 2.36 ERA in a journey that ended in Game 7 of the World Series. More on that later.