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.

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:

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.

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.

Baseball’s Roger Clemens has never been one to back down and go easy on batters.

So it’s no surprise that he has launched a very public campaign to clear his name of allegations leveled against him in the Mitchell report on the use of steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs in baseball.

And it’s also not surprising that Rusty Hardin, a Houston-based criminal defense lawyer, is representing Clemens.

Connections can be good, but they can also become conflicts of interest.

Former U.S. Sen. George J. Mitchell released his report Thursday on the illegal use of steroids and other performances enhancing substances by Major League Baseball players.

Mitchell, 74, is widely respected, the sort of statesman who’s called in to fix problems others can’t solve. But he also has past and current links to baseball, including his role as director of the Boston Red Sox.

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.