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Old 11-25-2019, 04:06 PM   #43
HerbD
All Star Reserve
 
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Join Date: Dec 2001
Location: Indiana
Posts: 851
HBL Hall of Fame: Class of 2022



Tobey Stell was a soldier on the baseball field. When you watched him play you didn't always notice him but when you looked at the box score the next day his numbers would always
stand out. From his rookie season in 2000 to his last year in Davenport(2016) he averaged 6.1 WAR. He teamed up with future Hall of Famer David Howard to
make the Bullfrogs relevant. He led them from being an expansion team in his rookie season to making the post season three times. "Cosmo" would always do the little
things to help his team win like being hit by a pitch an HBL record 294 times. He finished his career third in doubles, second in triples, and seventh in hits, one of
only seven men to reach 3,000. The 12 time All-Star played over 2500 games and took home one best fielder award and was named a Silver Slugger winner four times. He is the first
player inducted into the Heartland Baseball League Hall of Fame to do so in a Davenport Bullfrogs uniform.








How lucky can you be? Oshkosh won the 1998 Heartland Series and had the last pick of the first round in the ammy draft. In the past not much had come out of that last pick
but the Outlaws had a skinny high school outfielder drop to them. It's difficult to scout high school players but this kid played every game for four years, hit over .400, and averaged
17 homers a season. With that information in hand Oshkosh took a chance on Bill Swift and it the rest of the HBL lost out.

Despite some injuries that saw him miss the equivalent to two full seasons of games Swift still ranks at the top most offensive leaderboards. His .344 batting average is
eighth all time and he is in the top 20 in slugging, OPS, hits, total bases, homers, and RBI. All of that is great but you play the game to win and win
Bill Swift did. In total he played
in the playoffs nine times, eight with the Outlaws. Although they only won it all once(2010), his Oshkosh teams played in the Heartland Series five consecutive seasons from 2008 to 2012.

He was an eight time All-Star and eight times he was named a Silver Slugger winner. I am sure those numbers would be bigger had he not suffered through the
injuries. He is the seventh player to enter the Heartland Series Hall of Fame wearing an Outlaws uniform.



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