Art by Tom Forget

By 1931, the Marin County court system was sick of dealing with Tony Freitas.

Sure, the young pitcher for the Pacific Coast League's Sacramento Senators was becoming a star. He went 19-6 with a 3.24 ERA for the Senators at just 22 years old the year prior. He had already been pitching professionally for three seasons. He was small, about 5-foot-8 and 160 pounds (known as the "little Portuguese Portsider"), but his deception -- his sometimes side-armed deliveries, his at-other-times submarine-style tosses, made him difficult to hit. He'd eventually become one of the greatest Minor League pitchers of all time.

But Freitas had a bit of an off-the-field problem: Although he didn't have much velocity off the mound, he did have it while behind the wheel of a car.

Before th

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