Baseball’s 2010 regular season featured two perfect games, but arguably the most memorable pitching performance came from 28-year-old righty Armando Galarraga.

Galarraga, you’ll recall, retired the first 26 Cleveland hitters in order on June 2. The 27th, Jason Donald, slapped a soft grounder to the right side of the infield. You know all this: Miguel Cabrera handled it cleanly and fired it to Galarraga, covering first, beating Donald by a step. Umpire Jim Joyce called Donald safe, robbing Galarraga of a perfect game.

Galarraga didn’t argue the call. He smiled instead.

Armando Galarraga is not a great pitcher by Major League standards. He’s not even a good one; he’s just a guy. He won’t make the Hall of Fame, he won’t win the Cy Young Award, and he probably won’t ever make an All-Star Team. But thanks to the whims of the sport and small sample sizes and in part to a brutal Indians lineup, Galarraga had a shot at baseball immortality.

I don’t know Galarraga personally, but I know he was signed by the Expos out of Venezuela when he was 16. And I know he spent seven years kicking around the Minor Leagues before settling in to the Tigers’ rotation in 2008. And then on June 2, he saw before his eyes the culmination of all the work he has certainly endeavored and all the physical toil he has doubtlessly endured: perfection, the ultimate single-game accomplishment for a pitcher. Then it was taken from him, and he only smiled.

Joyce, for his part, watched a replay of the call immediately after the game, admitted he blew it and apologized to Galarraga. Galarraga said he understood.

In the end, Joyce and Galarraga shared something perhaps as rare as a perfect game: Two apparently decent and reasonable human beings behaving in a civilized and understanding manner despite an awful situation.

Roy Halladay’s perfect game further confirmed my knowledge that Roy Halladay is really good. Dallas Braden’s perfect game further exposed Braden’s Happy Gilmore-esque silliness and introduced me to his smack-talking grandma. Armando Galarraga’s near-perfect game reminded me of the human capacity for dignity. It’s hard to imagine a more impressive performance on a baseball field.