With his career set to come to a close on Friday night against the Rays, Yankees veteran Alex Rodriguez answered several questions in a farewell interview with Michael Kay that will air on the YES Network at 6 p.m. ET on Friday.
As impressive as his 2015 season was -- 33 home runs, his most since 2008; and 151 games, his most since '07 -- Rodriguez seems to be most impressed with what he's done off the field since returning from a one-year suspension for obtaining performance-enhancing substances and obstructing an investigation.
Rodriguez said during the interview he is eager to build on that promise in his next endeavor as a special advisor and instructor for the Yankees.
"Really, the thing that I'm most proud of over the last two years is mending relationships with the Commissioner's Office, [Yankees managing general partner] Hal Steinbrenner, my teammates, my coaches, my managers," Rodriguez said. "And here I am. I have an opportunity to help the next generation, and hopefully they learn from a lot of the mistakes that I've made.
"I think the biggest key for me was understanding that I screwed up, and I screwed up in a big way," Rodriguez said. "You have to own that. I think that was step one. Step two was surrounding myself with good people and making better decisions. Step three was making a lot of uncomfortable calls to a lot of people that I respect and hurt.
"Then you have to come out and walk the walk and work really hard at behaving in a certain way. And, for the most part, I think I've done that."