Friday column:

In 1981 in a match at Wimbledon, a linesman missed a call — or not — and John McEnroe came unglued, famously screaming at the chair umpire, “You can’t be serious — you cannot be serious!” and calling him the “absolute pits of the world” when he refused to reverse the call.

Over one point.

Wednesday night, Detroit’s Armando Galarraga lost more than a point on a bad call — a demonstrably bad call. He lost a perfect game. Which means he lost recognition as only the 21st pitcher in the 134-year history of baseball to retire 27 consecutive men.

What did the 28-year-old Venezuela native do?

He smiled.

Oh, it was a pained smile, to be sure — a rueful smile. But it was a smile.

Yet more impressive than his composure on the field was his composure off it after he retired Mike Redmond for the 27th — actually, the 28th — out.

In the clubhouse, when Galarraga heard that Jim Joyce — the ump who blew the call — was berating himself over the mistake, Galarraga said, “Tell him no problem.” Then he said, “I can go tell him.”

And Galarraga did.

“I know nobody’s perfect,” Galarraga told ESPN, describing the meeting. “He feels real bad.” For his part, Joyce had asked for a chance to apologize, and he did.

“You don’t see an umpire after the game come out and say, ‘Hey, let me tell you I’m sorry,’ ” Galarraga said. “He felt really bad. He didn’t even shower.”

At the time of the mistake, some of the Tigers were less forgiving than Galarraga, and Joyce — to his credit — didn’t have a problem with any of the hot rhetoric.

“I don’t blame them a bit — or anything that was said,” Joyce said. “I would’ve said it myself if I had been Galarraga. I would’ve been the first person in my face, and he never said a word to me.”

The Tigers’ Jim Leyland is one of the most well-respected managers, and on Wednesday he demonstrated why. Described as “livid” at the time of the blown call, he vehemently protested to Joyce but afterward threw the 24-year veteran a lifeline.

“That’s the nature of the business, that’s just the way it is,” Leyland said. “The players are human, the umpires are human, the managers are human, the writers are human. We all make mistakes. It’s a crying shame. Jimmy’s a real good umpire, has been for a long time.”

Because of the egregious nature of the mistake, Major League Baseball briefly considered reversing the call and awarding Galarraga the perfect game. It would have corrected an injustice — and allowed Joyce to sleep at night — but also would have set a troublesome precedent.

Yet Galarraga’s loss is, in some ways, our gain. For on Wednesday he not only gave us a pitching lesson, he gave us one on graciousness. It’s the second lesson that’s the more important.

Contact Jim Gordon at gjames43@msn.com.