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 NL, 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.  The race went down to the final game of the season, with 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, producing World Series tickets that would ultimately become "Phantom" tickets. 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)." VG condition, very weak at the perforation.