n172 Old Judge Pretzels "Getzien/Cetzein" Joke Card

[cyseymour]

So good I thought it deserved its own thread.

It is a joke card regarding Pretzles Getzien's name.

Getzien is not a real German name. It derives from the word "gesehen" which means "to have been seen."

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/gesehen

Yet on his cards in the OJ book, it reads "Cetzein", and in fact, it caused a confusion in a few newspaper articles succeeding the publishing of the card, where he is called Cetzein.

But it turns out that the name "Cetzein" was also a joke. You can see from this passage, "Cet zein":

"The word he translated ‘investigate’ is cet zein, which can carry the semi-technical sense ‘subject to a Socratic examination.’"

http://webcache.googleusercontent.co...&ct=clnk&gl=us

The joke is that, as a German foreigner, Charlie Getzien was an oddball subject to examination. Get it? These guys are using the roots of words of the player names to make jokes!!!

[cyseymour]

"Detroit has a pitcher in Cetzein who is second to. I none ia the League, and he ... The record of the pitchers shows that Cetzein has done work that entitles him to ..."

http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%...20-%200018.pdf

"Cetzein pitched for us that day. He vowedi eome time previously that if we ever did win again he would drop dead. And ihe almost kept his word. As the last man ..."

http://fultonhistory.com/Newspapers%...20-%200018.pdf

Batteries Cetzein and Bennett; Hutchinson and KittredKC. I. At Philadelphia—. R- H. E.. Philadelphia...0 2 0 1 2 5 0 0 0-1013 0. Cleveland. .0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0— ...

http://fultonhistory.com/Newspaper%2...20-%200039.pdf

[cyseymour]

let me also note that the "cetzein" cards in the OJ book date to the same exact year, 1888, as the McCreachery card. The OJ producers were making jokes of the names!

[sb1]

There are many, many German immigrants with the name Getzien or Getzein, there are NONE with the C in place of the G. In fact he used the name Getzien on all of the census data other documents, SO... I don't understand the comment:

It is a joke card regarding Pretzles Getzien's name.

Getzien is not a real German name.

[cyseymour]

Originally Posted by sb1

There are many, many German immigrants with the name Getzien or Getzein, there are NONE with the C in place of the G. In fact he used the name Getzien on all of the census data other documents, SO... I don't understand the comment:

It is a joke card regarding Pretzles Getzien's name.

Getzien is not a real German name.

Nothing came up when I googled it, but I'll have to take your word for it. But do you know anyone named Cetzein???

[sb1]

There is no one named Cetzien or Cetzein. There are lots of Getzein's and Getzien's. Your post states that the later is not a real German name. That is incorrect.