“Matt Coutney remembers the exact moment when he realized that professional baseball was going to be a grind.

In his final two seasons at Old Dominion University (2021-2022), the Wetaskiwin product played a total of 117 games.

On his way to playing 121 games in 2023 in the Los Angeles Angels’ farm system, it was a roadtrip to California when he started to understand what many others had told him about life in the pros.

“It was game 32 and I was thinking to myself, ‘I have 100 games left – there’s no way I’m going to be able to make it through this,’” Coutney told Alberta Dugout Stories: The Podcast. “As the year goes on, you hit certain benchmarks – you make it another week, you make it another month – and the next think you know, the season is over.”