Alex Rodriguez's first sign of genuine contrition came at a closed-door meeting in the Yankee Stadium office of team owner Hal Steinbrenner. A-Rod needed to demonstrate he learned something after his extended temper tantrum of a defense preceding his yearlong ban from baseball for performance-enhancing drug use.

During Major League Baseball’s investigation of his relationship with Biogenesis, Rodriguez was willing to tear down everybody and anybody he could meekly grasp onto, even some of his bosses inside the Yankees' front office. With his return to spring training just days away, A-Rod arrived ready to apologize.

On a 30-degree day in February 2015, Rodriguez trekked up to Steinbrenner’s office. He brought his new lawyer, Jim Sharp, with him. Unlike Joe Tacopina, the lawyer who entertainingly but destructively led A-Rod’s scorched-earth PED defense, Sharp is not known as a boisterous man, and he's no publicity hound. His reputation is as an old-school, no-nonsense lawyer.

A-Rod's switching to Sharp for representation marked a different approach from the one A-Rod employed during the soap opera he staged in a vain attempt to salvage himself in 2013.

Besides Steinbrenner, there were three other Yankees executives at the meeting: team president Randy Levine, general manager Brian Cashman and assistant GM Jean Afterman. A-Rod's behavior had made the situation very personal for both Levine and Cashman.

In the fall of 2013, a group Rodriguez supported called Hispanics Across America (HAA) had smeared Levine outside of Rodriguez's appeal at Major League Baseball’s Manhattan headquarters. About 50 to 75 protesters chanted, "No justice, no peace" for the ballplayer with the $275 million contract, and held signs that claimed, "Randy Levine is the devil." Before Biogenesis, A-Rod and Levine were email buddies.

As for Cashman, Rodriguez had driven the GM bonkers during the case, which coincided with Rodriguez’s rehab from a second hip surgery during the 2013 season. At one point, when A-Rod tweeted that he thought he might be able to play in a minor league game -- which was prior to the Yankees giving their blessing -- Cashman told ESPN.com that Rodriguez should "shut the f--- up."

When A-Rod started suing everyone from Major League Baseball to the players' association to the Yankees' team doctor, Cashman publicly stated he would not speak to A-Rod because of the slugger's litigious tendencies.

Steinbrenner, a different man than his volatile father, had stayed above the fray throughout the process. Rodriguez had never laid a glove on the owner. In hindsight, this move -- or non-move -- would prove vital.

In the owner’s office, during the 90-minute meeting in 2015, Rodriguez apologized, and the Yankees explained why they felt his actions were reprehensible. They told him he would have to take care of his apology news conference himself, instructing the team’s PR staff not to make the spring training tent -- where the biggest names on the roster begin the season with the media -- available to Rodriguez.

The Yankees knew they couldn’t get even with A-Rod, as they still owed him $61 million over the next three seasons, but they told him straight to his face that they would not honor the $30 million in milestone home run bonuses in his contract, claiming he had ruined the pact. At the time, A-Rod was just six homers short of Willie Mays' 660, which was the first $6 million marker.

The team was letting A-Rod return, but not fully welcoming him back.

A-Rod asked for the meeting, realizing he needed to seek forgiveness if he would have any hope of remaining on the Yankees through 2015. He feared the Yankees would cut him during spring training.

Besides Sharp, Rodriguez’s PR rep, Ron Berkowitz, convinced Rodriguez to be more himself, to be honest, because others deserved it and he owed it to himself. A-Rod apologized, but that was only the beginning of the story.

"There was no closure," Cashman said Sunday evening. "That was one step of many."

The meeting had great importance, but the steps that really got Rodriguez into the good graces of the Yankees were the 33 trips he took around the bases that season.

A-Rod hit last year. He finished 2015 batting .250 with 33 homers and 86 RBIs. This year, he is batting .204 with nine homers and 29 RBIs. It is hard to imagine, had he struggled in 2015 with a .204 batting average, that the Yankees would have held a news conference to softly announce his release and an advisory role with the club.

The reason A-Rod was able to sit on the dais and allowed to have some dignity while essentially being fired (with a $26 million or so severance) was because of the home runs and his relationship with Steinbrenner. Rodriguez has done charity work for causes Steinbrenner supports. The two also seem to get along well.

In the talks leading up to the announcement, it was Steinbrenner alone who met with Rodriguez and laid out the possible end game. He broached the advisory role.

As for Levine and A-Rod, the two have stayed out of each other's way, but have not truly repaired anything. Rodriguez did not thank Levine during his news conference. The two, according to sources, have barely spoken since the February 2015 meeting, except for an occasional hello when their paths cross.

Rodriguez and Cashman speak, but they are by no means tight. Cashman was truthful when he said he respects Rodriguez’s opinions on baseball matters. Cashman has asked A-Rod what he thinks about certain free agents and trades.

"The relationship now is professional and good," Cashman said. "I don’t avoid him, and I seek him out on certain matters. You can live in a world of grudges or you can forgive and forget."

The initial post-suspension meeting with the Yankees' hierarchy helped Rodriguez show he was serious about his contrition. His 33 homers helped smooth out his reputation, while he acted more human in his dealings with teammates, fans and the media. But it was Steinbrenner who made Sunday possible.

Steinbrenner refused to eat the $61 million, which could have effectively ended A-Rod’s playing days with the one-year suspension and likely would have orbited him into a post-playing career like that of Pete Rose, an all-time accomplished player, but a pariah inside the game.

Steinbrenner let Rodriguez play, and the owner was rewarded in 2015 with a strong season that was a big reason for the team's wild-card berth. In 2016, A-Rod was not the same hitter, though he was basically the same person as 2015.

He had done enough that Steinbrenner is not only allowing A-Rod a send-off week and a final home game on Friday, but he has given him a future role in the franchise. It sets up A-Rod to appear at Old-Timers' Day events, which would have seemed unfathomable during the Biogenesis scandal.

The meeting prior to spring training in 2015 was the start of A-Rod’s comeback, but it was the man who owned the office where it took place who allowed A-Rod to walk away and not just be kicked to the curb.