The 1949 baseball season was one of the game's most memorable with two furious pennant races keeping the Yankees and Red Sox atop the American League and the Dodgers and Cardinals atop the National League for the majority of the season. In the National League the Cardinals led the Dodgers by one game as late as September 28 before falling behind on the 29th after a Dodgers twin bill sweep of the Braves. Both races went down to the final game of the season with the Yankees defeating Boston in front of 70 000 fans on October 2 and the Dodgers defeating the Phillies in extra innings to finish on top. As is the case with most tight races at the end of the season the Cardinals needed to plan ahead for the postseason regardless of whether or not they knew how the end of the season would play out. As such the team produced World Series tickets that became "phantom" tickets upon the Dodgers' dramatic victory ostensibly making them available to season ticket holders or other VIPs with advance payment. After being defeated the front office was tasked with the unenviable role of refunding the money paid by their fans. In just his second season as owner of the Cardinals Fred Saigh took to the task with a positive attitude and good humor however returning the payments to fans along with a ticket to the "phantom" World Series. The tickets were overprinted with a special message for fans from the Cardinals organization reading as follows: "We're really RED Birds now - embarrassed as can be. But here's a World Series ticket as a souvenir. And (surprise!) you get your money back too. Seriously thank you for your interest and support. It's grand to know we have so many good fans. FRED SAIGH (For the Cardinal family)" Such a classy and humorous gesture would be unlikely in today's day and age. Presented are four phantom Sportsman's Park tickets to the 1949 World Series including one with the aforementioned message. That ticket for section GG row 10 is a full single Game 3 ticket in excellent condition with minor surface wear. The remaining three are together on a panel clearly season tickets for section U row 3 for Games 3-5. These tickets appear in EX condition with minor surface and corner wear. <