For years, Chuck Knoblauch has been the answer to this trivia question:

“What Yankee second baseman hit Keith Olbermann’s mom with a wild throw?”

But now, Knoblauch, 39, has become the answer to another trivia question. On baseball blogs, people are asking, in one way or another:

Roger Clemens got to the courtroom first last night, suing the man who has accused him of using steroids and human growth hormone.

The suit raises the stakes in what had been a war of words, creating the possibility of testimony under oath and all its consequences.

The suit against Brian McNamee was filed on the same night Clemens went on 60 Minutes and denied ever receiving illegal injections of performance enhancing drugs from McNamee.

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.

The producers of 60 Minutes couldn’t have asked for a better buildup to Sunday’s scheduled broadcast of an interview with baseball’s Roger Clemens about allegations that he used illegal performance-enhancing drugs.

The stakes in that interview, already high, have been raised by the lawyer for Clemens’ chief accuser and former trainer, Brian McNamee.

He’s said that if Clemens, who has denied using the drugs, calls McNamee a liar in the interview, he’ll sue for libel.

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.