Whether or not the perjury case against baseball’s Barry Bonds goes to trial could depend upon who becomes the next U.S. attorney for the Northern District of California.

Once again, it’s the cover-up and not the crime that gets someone in trouble.

Olympic track star Marion Jones was sentenced Friday to six months in federal court for not telling authorities the truth in two unrelated cases.

Time will tell, but right now it would seem that the vitamin B12 explanation isn’t working much better for Roger Clemens than the flaxseed oil defense did for Barry Bonds.

Clemens told Mike Wallace in a 60 Minutes interview to be aired this evening that, contrary to allegations, he received injections of vitamin B12 and lidocaine earlier in his career, not steroids and human growth hormones.

Sports writers and sports columnists don’t seem to be taking Clemens at his word, in part because they’ve been down this road before.

What do Jack Shephard, Paris Hilton, Robert Levy, Andre Agassi, 50 Cent, “Don’t tase me, bro!”, Robert Chambers, Barry Bonds, Benny Hinn and Northrop Grumman Corp. have in common?

Not much really, except that they were the subjects of some of the most read stories on Muckety during 2007.

Barry Bonds struck out on his first attempt to hire a high-powered lawyer to defend him against federal perjury charges.

Negotiations broke down between the home run king and John Keker, a celebrated criminal defense attorney. Reports were that Bonds was put off by Keker’s fee — said to be $900 an hour — and other issues.

But Bonds stepped up to the plate again, and by the end of last week he had assembled a solid defense team of experienced lawyers.

Two major informants play central roles in the searing report on steroid use in baseball, released yesterday by former Sen. George Mitchell.

Kirk Radomski, a former Mets clubhouse attendant, and Brian McNamee, a former strength trainer for the Yankees and Blue Jays, provided much of the information linking players to drug use. The document named 89 players, including superstars Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Jose Canseco and Jason Giambi.

Baseball’s Barry Bonds would seem like a man in need of a really good lawyer, but he’s proving somewhat frugal, perhaps too frugal.

According to news reports, Bonds, who was indicted Friday on charges of lying to grand jury about steroid use, suffered from sticker shock at the $900 per hour fee charged by John W. Keker, a San Francisco defense attorney who has been involved in several high-profile cases.