[Terry D]

Don Werner was your basic third string catcher. It was his ill luck to be in the Reds chain in the 1970s, well buried behind Johnny Bench. Werner rode the yo-yo between Indianapolis and Cincinnati for five years, but whenever Bench got hurt somebody else (Vic Correll, Joe Nolan, etc) seemed to step in between Bench and Werner's opportunity to play. Werner did get a fair shot in 1978 and caught a no-hitter by Tom Seaver for his one moment of ML glory, but then it was back to the yo-yo. Werner got parts of two seasons with the Rangers after that and hung on for years in the minors, finally graduating to a successful career as a manager and catching instructor. To tell the truth, Werner was not a very good player. He didn't hit major league pitching, and he was vulnerable to the running game. For some odd reason good color photos of him with the Reds seem to be pretty scarce, the only one I have seen previously being the small image on his 1978 Topps rookie card. Now the Topps Vault has released two full-size color shots. I don't know for sure when they were taken but since one looks a little similar to the rookie card shot I will guess at 1977-78.