GARY, Ind. — All-time Gary SouthShore RailCats greats Willie Glen and Tony Cogan headline a list of five more players and coaches added to the lineup for the team’s first-ever Fan Fest, Saturday, February 21 from 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. at the Radisson Hotel in Merrillville.

Tickets are on sale now for this one-of-a-kind minor league baseball event for only $15, a price that includes all-day admission, a free souvenir program and autograph poster, a ticket to Opening Day – Monday, May 18 at 7 p.m. – and a commemorative t-shirt for the first 500 fans.  Tickets can be purchased online at www.railcatsbaseball.com or by calling 219.882.2255.  The ticket price will go up to $20 at the door next Saturday.  Kids 12 and under will be admitted for only $5.

Glen was the ace of a dominant RailCats pitching staff from 2005-07, earning Northern League Pitcher of the Year honors in 2007 when he set the modern league record for strikeouts in a single season (162).  Glen is the RailCats career leader in nearly every pitching category, including career wins (32), ERA (3.23), strikeouts (384) and innings pitched (409.0).  Remarkably, Glen lost only nine times in his three seasons and went 8-0 in the postseason.

Glen went 16-1, including the playoffs, in his final season in Gary and punctuated that campaign with arguably the most dominant single-game performance in team history, a three-hit complete game in the RailCats 5-1 win over Calgary in Game Five of the Northern League Championship Series.  Glen went on to earn Championship Series Most Valuable Player honors and was named to the Baseball America All-Independent First Team following the season.

The 31-year-old Glen signed with the Florida Marlins following the 2007 season and enjoyed great success last year, going 9-4 with a 2.01 ERA for the Double-A Carolina Mudcats, earning a spot in the Southern League All-Star Game.  Glen is expected to begin the 2009 season with either the Marlins new Double-A affiliate in Jacksonville or Triple-A New Orleans.

Cogan, meanwhile, has starred for the RailCats in two different roles, first as a closer in 2007 and then as the RailCats top starter last season.  The former Kansas City Royal set a RailCats record with 25 saves in 2007 before preserving through a mid-season injury last season to record the lowest single-season ERA (2.08) in club history.  In two years with the RailCats, Cogan has allowed only 102 hits in 126.2 innings and boasts a tidy 2.34 ERA.

Joining Glen and Cogan at Fan Fest will be former RailCats Cody Fisher and Mike Coles, along with longtime First Base Coach and Gary native Joe Gates.

Fisher was a member of the 2005 Northern League Champion ‘Cats and earned a pair of big postseason wins that year after carrying a 2.50 ERA in the regular season.  Coles, who has spent the last two years with the Frontier League’s Windy City Thunderbolts, made the RailCats out of the team’s 2006 open tryout and went on to hit .274 in 74 games.  A Hammond native, Coles starred at Purdue before joining the ‘Cats.  Gates, a member of the 1978-79 Chicago White Sox, is a 1973 graduate of Roosevelt High School in Gary.  Now the Head Baseball and Volleyball Coach at Wirt High School, Gates has also worked as the RailCats First Base Coach since the team moved into U. S. Steel Yard in 2003.

These five players join the 15 current and former players, coaches and broadcasters already committed to appear at the Fan Fest.  Fans in attendance will get a chance to pick up autographs, ask questions and learn at baseball clinics hosted by the RailCats invited guests.  A complete schedule of Fan Fest activities will be announced next week.