Matt Turner

One of the most common memories of the hospital of residents of Weston is playing baseball on the grounds with the patients. Matt Turner, a glass blower living in Weston remembers playing baseball there starting in the 80s. The hospital had a baseball team, and Matt admitted, "After they got going over there, it wasn't very easy winning, like we were used to. They had some big players over there."

Matt's team played around twelve different teams at the hospital, among them being the patients' team. They played there for many years, on Mondays and Fridays.

They even had an umpire and a cheering section. "Those people followed us, to watch us play ball. We had a pretty good team; we always had a heck of a cheering section going on there." But not only did the citizens of the town cheer for them, the patients joined in too. "Whoever they liked to see play that's who they yelled for. It didn't matter if it was their team or who it was."

Click here to listen to Matt.

Even back in the 80s, the hospital had a women's team too. "Everybody around here at that time played ball." Matt said. Even the women played.

Later, Matt even coached a team. He coached Turner's Used Cars and then later coached Terri's Body Shop and "had a pretty good winning season."

Matt remembers, "We played about everywhere, but actually our favorite place to play would have been the State Hospital. You never knew what was going to happen from one minute to another, so it made an exciting evening. I really missed it over there."