"Barry Bonds showed up early. He stepped off the 19th-floor elevator of the federal courthouse in San Francisco a few minutes before 8 a.m. Monday, more than half an hour before his perjury trial was to begin.

Bonds didn't appear nervous. But after taking his seat at the defense table, he did more pregame stretching than we ever witnessed when he was playing for the Giants. Bonds then leaned back to watch the show. On Monday, this consisted of jury selection -- which was far more entertaining than normally snooze-inducing jury selection has a right to be.

Eventually, eight women and four men were seated, plus two alternates. But along the way, there were references to Google, baseball team charter flights and supermarket checkout lines. And during the process, two things became clear:

1. No matter how hard Judge Susan Illston tried to get an impartial jury, it is impossible to believe that any group of 12 Bay Area residents owns a totally blank and objective slate in terms of not knowing who Bonds is or what he is accused of doing. For example, one prospective juror told Illston: "I was at the grocery store the other day, and two people in front of me, that's all they could talk about."

2. When the real hardball starts with Tuesday morning's opening statements, the biggest battle for both the government and Bonds' lawyers will be to convince the jurors that this case is not about baseball and steroids. It is about lying. Or as one government attorney termed it: "Allegedly false testimony.""