SCANDAL MAKES US BELIEVERS OF DISBELIEF.

Byline: STEVE DILBECK

It's a downward spiral, pulling us all down into the darkness, and if a hand reached out to save you, whose would you take?

Almost everyone involved with the sports doping scandal looks soiled. They're cheats and liars and dopers and opportunists. A few tears won't win us back over. A sudden recanting won't save the day.

It's the month to believe, to be connected with a touch of long-ago innocence.

And who is there to believe?

Not athletes who deny using steroids, but then change their sordid tune when offered immunity or are caught through testing.

Not the slimy owners of these ``labs'' who become wealthy producing the illegal designer substances and then turn on the clients.

Not baseball's union, unable to simply do the right thing and agree to more stringent drug testing, not the clean athletes who look the other way, not the public which seems ambivalent over the entire scandal, and not the media which too often fails to work up a rightful outrage.

This whole distasteful quagmire is only growing, casting an unwanted but unavoidable shadow over every well-muscled track star and every power-hitting baseball player.

Over a year of federal grand jury hearings and indictments are spilling out publicly, continuing to taint most everyone involved in the process.

Now the San Francisco Chronicle reports slugger Jason Giambi admitted in his testimony to taking steroids and injecting human growth hormone he received from Barry Bonds' trainer.

Now Bonds reportedly admitted during his incredulous testimony that he used what is known as ``the cream'' and ``the clear,'' but never asked what they were and was unaware if they were the designer steroid THG.

Now greasy BALCO founder Victor Conte tells ABC News he provided multiple Olympic gold medalist Marion Jones with a variety of steroids and witnessed her injecting human growth hormone into her thigh.

There are millions and millions at stake here, reputations and legacies, and who do you trust?

Players with swollen heads and bodies, and track stars with almost freakish physiques hide behind either weak-testing procedures like baseball's, or the knowledge their steroid is undetectable.

Jose Canseco, Ken Caminiti and Giambi have admitted taking steroids. They were all frauds, and it's only the beginning.

Don't say steroids don't make a difference. These guys were all league MVPs. They took the drugs for a reason.

They make you stronger and faster. Balls that a shortstop might run down now power up the alley. Balls that died on the warning track now land several rows into the bleachers.

Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa and Bonds all have come under heavy suspicion. Men who now own most of baseball's most hallowed home run records.

Bonds' ability to escape indictment should prove remarkable. The Chronicle reported he was told the cream he was using was flaxseed oil.

Well, naturally. Everyone you know who rubs in a little flaxseed oil suddenly starts bench pressing Sherman Oaks and is asked to double for Arnold Schwarzenegger.

By his 35th birthday, Bonds had never hit more than 46 home runs in a single season. Suddenly he goes through an age-defying explosion of power, hits a record 73 home runs in 2001 with a head the size of Jupiter, and it's just good nutrition and exercise?

His attorney, Michael Rains, actually had the temerity to claim this whole drug scandal was nothing but an evil American plot to take down Bonds. Right, the federal government has nothing better to do than pursue some personal vendetta against a baseball player.

A player, it should be noted, whose trainer, Greg Anderson, is apparently much more open with relatively recent acquaintance Giambi than life-long buddy Bonds.

Giambi said Anderson explained to him exactly what the drugs were he was providing, while apparently leaving gullible Bonds hanging.

Both Bonds and Jones have continually denied taking steroids. So did everyone else now singing.

Jones' ex-husband has been suspended because of steroids and so has her current boyfriend and father of her child, 100-meter world-record holder Tim Montgomery.

Kelli White, a former world sprint champion, also came forward this week and admitted using an assortment of banned substances provided by Conte. Her explanation: She felt compelled to cheat to have a chance at winning.

Conte is an original piece of ooze. He made millions selling steroids to NFL players, baseball players and track and field stars. Like all our other little innocents, he steadfastly denied dealing in illegal steroids.

Now he's on national TV spilling his guts, and it turns out, the career he's really after belongs to Chris Rock.

``I'm here today because I believe that the world needs to hear the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, so that we can really attempt collectively to try to genuinely create a level playing field for the athletes of the future,'' Conte said.

Conte would be absolutely hilarious - if he didn't make you want to take a shower.

It's a strain to believe anything Conte says. And sadly, as the spiral continues, it's difficult to believe any of them.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- color) BALCO founder Victor Conte is at the center of a steroid scandal that has caused the trust of many to be questioned.

Jeff Chiu/Associated Press

(2) New York Yankees first baseman Jason Giambi has reportedly admitted to taking steroids he got from Barry Bonds' trainer.

Julie Jacobson/Associated Press

Box:

PLAYERS LINKED TO STEROIDS PROBE

Associated Press