Well here’s a beautiful scene:

[mlbvideo id=”36501263″ width=”660″ height=”370″ /]

Guilder Rodriguez, a light-hitting utility player who spent 13 seasons in the minor leagues before making his MLB debut with the Texas Rangers earlier this month, notched his first big-league hit against the Astros on Monday with his parents on hand to see it.

Rodriguez’s father appeared to tear up in pride:

Minor league lifers like Rodriguez are the unsung backbone of the big-league game. High-profile stars like Clayton Kershaw, Mike Trout and Derek Jeter rarely achieve Major League success without first honing their crafts down on the farm, playing with and against dozens of dudes who will hardly sniff the game’s highest level.

Maybe you can’t drub up much sympathy for anyone paid to play baseball at any level, but toiling away in the minors is hardly a glamorous lifestyle. And you don’t spend 13 years riding buses and living in cramped quarters for relatively puny paychecks if you don’t really, really, really want to keep your big-league dreams alive.

(PHOTO: Tom Pennington/Getty Images)

I don’t know Guilder Rodriguez and so I can’t even venture a guess at what motivated him to keep going in his 10th season in Class AA this year. But now he’s got a Major League hit, and no one can ever take that from him even if he never sees the inside of a big-league clubhouse again after this season. And his parents got to witness it.

A late-September game between two teams long out of the pennant chase might not have much impact on the standings. But let no one say it is meaningless.

(Thanks to Big League Stew for calling our attention to this video.)