Interrupting our regularly scheduled program...

... with sounds from Detroit.

"I never want to show anybody up," Kenny Rogers said, "but I wanted this game [Yankees] as much as I ever wanted any in my life...I just think, as much as anything else, I wanted this win for us as a team," Rogers said, "but I wanted it for myself, my family, everything. I wanted to do well and leave nothing out there. And this is probably one of the wins that I'm never going to forget." 10-7-06

"He was definitely the difference-maker in our series," Yankees slugger Gary Sheffield says. "It was weird. All anyone could talk about was how well we hit off Kenny Rogers (who was 0-7 with a 9.21 ERA against New York since 1993). I guarantee there was no fear in anyone's heart on our team. We planned on beating him up pretty good. But he showed a side to him that surprised just about everyone. He challenged us. And we didn't respond back. A whole lot of people have a different perception about Kenny Rogers than they did a week ago." 10-10-2006

Said Monroe: "When the (regular) season was over, it was over. We had an opportunity to win the World Series. It wasn't about stats. ...They're overrated. It's about heart. It's about who gets the clutch hit. It's about who pitches lights-out....And we believed we could do it when no one else did." 10-10-06

When Jim puts out the lineup it's the right nine. He's the only one who has to know the decision," the reliever Todd Jones said. "If I walk in there on Friday and see my name as the cleanup hitter, I'd expect to get a hit." 10-11-06

"It's in our minds that we're not going to do anything different," reliever Joel Zumaya said. "We're playing Leyland baseball." 10/11/06

"[Gomez's] got big-time power," Leyland said on Wednesday night. "Unfortunately, he showed most of it in batting practice. But in fact, I guess I can kid about it now. I told him, 'It's a 5 o'clock game, and that's when you hit most of your home runs normally, so I'm going to play you tonight.' He came through pretty big." 10/12/06

I normally don't give pitchers any credit," Milton Bradley said. "I get myself out. But [Rogers] was outstanding. You can't pitch any better than that. I don't want to disrespect anybody, but I almost feel like going over there and high-fiving him myself. He was that good." 10-13-06

"Those waving towels out there," Brandon Inge said. "Every time [Rogers] got to a two-strike count, I thought I was going to pass out. The whole stands looked like they were swaying back and forth 10-13-06

"I wish sometimes I could just step outside of my body while it's all going on and just go take a seat and watch," Rogers said. "You can't, but that would be probably the best scenario you could ask for, to be able to revel in it and soak it all in when it's happening. I'm very fortunate to be here." 10-13-06

"I know the player Magglio is," A's Frank Thomas said. "I protected him for years. He's been a great hitter forever. What he showed tonight, I've seen those nights when he can do that. I'm not surprised that he came through. I'm happy for him, because he's like a little brother to me. You can't be mad at him because of what he did." 10/14/06

"Early in spring training, we had a lot of good players," Leyland said. "We didn't have a good team. And today I can make the statement that we've got a good team, and that's the thing I'm proudest of." 0-14-06

"He's sincere, he shoots straight and he tells you exactly what he's feeling,'' Inge said. "He cares about his players, and when you have a manager like that, you want to play as hard as you can and leave it out on the field. He respects you, so you should give him the respect he deserves.''

"You can't go anywhere in this city without Tigers fans talking about their pride in the organization and the team,'' Rogers said. "As players, maybe we don't understand it completely, but we surely appreciate it. This is something we'll take with us for a long, long time.''

He's 40-something years old. Maybe 50," Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge said, smiling. "But you would never know it by looking at him. He plays with the intensity of a 12-year-old kid going out to the Little League field. I enjoy watching him. I hope when I'm 78 and still playing, I have the same intensity as him."

"Well, my team, I think early on in Spring Training we had a lot of good players," Leyland said Saturday night. "We didn't have a good team. And today I can make the statement that we've got a good team, and that's the thing I'm proudest of."

WTBN Chapter 5: Characters

Chapter 5 Breakout Checklist (summary):

1. All stories are character driven
2. Engrossing characters are out of the ordinary
3. Readers' sympathy for characters comes from characters' strength
4. Larger-than-life characters say what we can't say, do what we cannot do, change in ways we cannot change
5. Larger-than-life character have conflicting sides and are conscious of self.
6. Dark protagonists appeal only when they have sympathetic sides; e.g., they struggle to change or have hidden sensitivity.
7. The highest character qualities are self-sacrifice and forgiveness.
8. Build a cast for contrast.
9. Build complex character relationships by combining roles.
10. Choose a narrator based on who is changed most by story's events
11. Build depth of character with tools like character biographies, author-character dialogues, etc.
12 Differentiate characters with character charts.
13. Breakout characters are deep and many-sided.

Identify what is extraordinary in ordinary characters (it might help to look at the people around you and identify the extraordinary character traits they show.)

How are my characters extraordinary?

What makes a character larger-than-life?
Strength
Inner conflict
Self-regard
Wit and spontaneity (larger than life characters do things that "we" would not do. In the mouths of your characters is the time to use the "perfect comeback")
How can your character act against the stereotype you've established for her?

Fully rounded, 3-D characters have many sides, complex motives and act/respond in ways that surprise us.

Define characters by making them individualized, by providing contrast between them.

The more complex the relationship is between characters, the more interesting the story will be.

Flawed characters need hints of the same qualities that maker heroes larger-than-life.

Secondary Characters:
Need to amplify the story.
Should do more than sympathize with protagonist, but should produce friction.
Should share their opinion of the other characters



How does Stan/Tricia react the first time the catch a whiff of the scents that set each other apart?