Henderson: I’ll have clean conscience at induction

COOPERSTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — While a growing number of baseball’s stars are being linked to performance-enhancing drugs, Rickey Henderson said Friday he’ll have a clean conscience when he’s inducted into the National Baseball Hall of Fame this summer.

“It makes me more proud that my accomplishments are clean. I did it the right way,” Henderson said, visiting the Hall of Fame a day after Major League Baseball suspended Manny Ramirez for 50 games for violating its drug policy.

Henderson, baseball’s career leader in runs scored and stolen bases, will be enshrined in Cooperstown on July 26, along with former Boston Red Sox slugger Jim Rice, who will tour the museum next week. They’ll be honored along with the late New York Yankees and Cleveland Indians second baseman Joe Gordon, elected posthumously by the Veterans Committee.

Henderson said some modern players tainted the game by using performance-enhancing drugs, but added it’s difficult to pass judgment on whether they deserve a place among baseball’s greatest players.

“In my time playing with a lot of the ballplayers, I don’t see that they did anything wrong. They took an advantage that the game offered,” Henderson said of the years before baseball banned steroids.

Nevertheless, Henderson said he was “shocked” and “disappointed” by Ramirez using a banned drug.

“I was never tempted. I was too fast,” Henderson said, adding that he probably would not have been the fleet runner he was if he’d bulked up.

Henderson, who built his reputation on running, took a slower pace Friday as he and his wife, Pamela, spent two hours exploring the museum and inspecting artifacts, including several of his own.

“As a kid, you grow up playing the game, and you never really know what you can achieve. To be inducted with the greatest players ... is a dream come true,” he said.