"Mickey Mantle told USA Today in May of 1987, “Look at guys like Willie Mays and Hank Aaron and Pete Rose. Those guys took care of their bodies and they played forever. I never thought it mattered, until now. It [ticks] me off when I see guys passing me on all=time home runs and I know I could have had a hell of a lot more. Kids should know they should take better care of themselves. I wish I had. Sometimes I think if I had the same body and the same natural ability and somebody else’s brain, who knows how good a player I would have been?”
Another story about how bad do you want it? Mets pitcher Dwight Gooden was not satisfied with his pitching mechanics, despite the very fine statistics he compiled in winning the Rookie of The Year Award in 1984. Off he went to the Instructional League -- and he won the Cy Young Award in 1985.
Another story about how bad do you want it? A biography of Roberto Clemente by Phil Musick (Who is Roberto) tells this story: On a rainy afternoon, during the 1971 season, in the middle of a downpour that threatened that night’s ball game, Clemente suddenly informed his friend that they were leaving for the ball park immediately. It was two o’clock. “The field will be wet tonight,” he told Bernier. “I want to try a couple of things.” Bernier described the “things.” “Clemente had someone roll the ball on the ground to make it wet and then threw it against the wall so that he could practice grabbing it barehanded. For a long time he did that and then ran back and forth, stopping and starting. That’s what the dedicated players do at every level of competition. The sooner the better."
Harvey was a mental skills consultant in the MLB from 1987 to 1997 and is known as one of the original mental skills coaches.