This has to be one of the season's best moments: Guilder Rodriguez, a 31-year-old Venezuelan recently called up to the majors for the first time, gets his first major league hit and we see his parents crying, Rangers fans giving him a standing ovation and happy teammates in the dugout.

Rodriguez had played 13 seasons and 1,095 games in the minor leagues -- more games than any current player who hadn't played in the majors. The Rangers generously called him up a couple weeks ago and he'd gone 0-for-6. Later in the game, he added an RBI single.

In what other sport can you toil 13 years in a lower league before finally getting a chance at the big leagues? I guess it can happen, but you don't see 31-year-olds making their debuts in the NFL. You don't see parents crying. Calvin Watkins of ESPN Dallas reports that it was the first time Rodriguez's dad had seen him play in the U.S. since he was in Class A in 2004.

"This is one of the best moments of my life," Rodriguez said after the game. "My first big league hit, my first RBI, my father in the stands, my wife. This is my second-best moment, after my two daughters were born."

Amazingly, Rodriguez has played for just two organizations, the Brewers, who signed him in 2001, and the Rangers. He's spent most of the past five seasons at Double-A Frisco, where he's served as a mentor to many of the Rangers' young Latin players. He has no power -- two career home runs in over 4,000 plate appearances -- and hopes to coach once his playing days end. As a writer for the Lone Star Ball blog termed him, he's a utility man's utility man.

Now he'll have this moment. After all those bus rides. All that bad clubhouse food. Hours upon hours of batting practice in empty minor league parks. How many times has he dropped those bunts down the third-base line, perfecting his game? I wonder if he was thinking of all that as he stood on first base on Monday night.

Back in June, when he was still at Frisco, Rodriguez told writer Jay Wallis, "My father and my whole family are just happy because not too many players have the opportunity to play here for a long time. My father always told me, 'I want to see you one day in the big leagues.' He saw me and now sees me. It's the dream."