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BOSTON -- There were reminders of David Ortiz everywhere Friday night at Fenway Park. Printed banners atop the Green Monster and alongside the perimeter of the building. Countless homemade signs. The first of three pregame ceremonies planned for the weekend. And a massive artistic rendering of Ortiz weaved into the center-field grass.It was impossible not to know that Ortiz was the central figure in this, the last regular-season series of his career. But just in case, Ortiz gave the rain-drenched throng in Boston another reason to appreciate him.In a rather fitting result for the beginning of an Ortiz-centric weekend, his two-run homer in the bottom of the seventh inning proved to be the difference in a 5-3 win over the Toronto Blue Jays.The retiring designated hitter also had an RBI single as Boston stopped a three-game slide and remained on pace to open the American League Division Series at home against Cleveland next Thursday.What can I tell you? Pretty good season, Ortiz said matter-of-factly in a quick session with reporters after the game.As Ortiz took the heroics in stride, his teammates were asked once again to put his phenomenal last season into perspective.Ive seen it for 10 years; its pretty special, man, second baseman Dustin Pedroia said. Every time theres a big situation, hes found a way to come through. Were going to enjoy the last couple of games we have with him because its pretty special. ... You expect it. Its kind of sad to say, in this game its tough to do what hes doing and he makes it look easy. You appreciate it so much from the outside watching it. Were just enjoying it. Its pretty awesome to see.Ortizs 541st home run was also his 1,192nd career extra-base hit, which tied him with Ken Griffey Jr. and Rafael Palmeiro for eighth place on baseballs all-time list. In addition, he is now tied with Torontos Edwin Encarnacion for the AL lead with 127 RBIs.All this for a 40-year-old who apparently needs hours of assistance to get ready for each and every game.Nights like tonight. He almost leaves you speechless, manager John Farrell said. The career hes had, the number of home runs hes hit from the seventh inning on in ballgames at big moments. Tonight is right there with them.The blast helped the Sox hold on to the second seed in the upcoming AL playoffs with two games to play, giving them the inside track for home-field advantage against Cleveland in the ALDS. A fourth straight loss would have put the Indians ahead and Boston on a path toward opening the postseason on the road, this just four days after the Red Sox held the top record in the AL.They needed a boost, and Ortizs timing was impeccable, as summed up by teammate Jackie Bradley Jr.:Big-time player, big-time playmaker, big-time home run. Kostas Antetokounmpo Jersey . Brandon Morrow allowed five runs on six hits over three innings. He struck out two, walked one and hit a batter. Edwin Encarnacion had a two-out, bases loaded two-RBI double in the third inning. Jose Juan Barea Jersey . The giant slalom world champion slipped during her first run in the morning, landing on her back and then twisting forward before getting her leg caught in the protective material on the side of the slope. http://www.mavericksteamofficial.info/jose-juan-barea-mavericks-jersey/ . Aaron Harrison scored a 22 points for Kentucky (6-1), which has won four in a row following a Nov. 12 loss to current No. 1 Michigan State. Julius Randle overcame a scoreless first half and added his sixth double-double in as many games with 14 points and 10 rebounds. Jason Kidd Mavericks Jersey .C. -- After a listless first half, the Washington Wizards used a big third quarter run to beat the Charlotte Bobcats Bradley Beal scored 21 points and the Wizards used a 17-0 run in the third quarter to take control of what had been a close game and beat the Bobcats 97-83 on Tuesday night. Jalen Brunson Mavericks Jersey . NBA officials ruled the court unplayable in the Bucks final exhibition game on Oct. 25 because players were slipping, and the game was cancelled midway through the first period. There are at least two types of book readers. (I refer to the people who read books and not those new-fangled devices.) The first type read their books in one go, rarely pausing for rumination, reflection or any handwork with pencils or highlighters. If at all, they reflect on the book after theyre done reading.Then there is the rare type - those who cannot read a book without obliterating it with dog ears, notes in the margin, underlined passages and bookmarks. They convert the reading experience into a process. Perhaps they even stop every few minutes to tweet out interesting lines.If you are one of the latter, you will take days to get through young Sri Lankan author Shehan Karunatilakas Chinaman. That is even if you really want to finish this brilliant book as quickly as you possibly can. With clever lines on every page, Chinaman is the most tweetable book Ive ever read.In hindsight it appears to me as if Karunatilaka wrote the book with a checklist in his mind: Thats one more page done. Do we have a joke? Check. A brutal dig at cricket? Check. An irreverent swipe at Sri Lankan culture? Check.A superb work of fiction blended with non-fiction that makes you sit up night after night reading it? Double check.Chinaman is, mostly, the story of a Sri Lankan journalists hunt for a long-forgotten, and fictional, Sri Lankan cricket player called Pradeep Mathew. Mathew has a brief, meteoric cricketing career in the late 80s and early 90s that sees him achieve superhuman bowling records. But he vanishes as quickly as he appeared.As the curious, and increasingly obsessive, journalist, Karunasena, begins to peel back the layers of Mathews life he realises something is amiss. Mathew has vanished not just from the cricketing scene, it appears he has ceased to exist. His existence has even been expunged from the record books. And there is something disturbingly Orwellian about it all.Yet Karunatilakas book is equally about Karunasena. I wish I knew more about the author to see how self-referential this character is. Or maybe they just share Karunas. But the character of the 64-year old journalist is a wonderful device to place the topic of Sri Lankan cricket within the larger themes provided by Sri Lankan society and history.So on the one hand there is the obsessed, alcoholic journalist, well into the twilight of his career, going in search of a human mirage. But on the other there is the very real world that this journalist occupies. One of his friends is a diplomat who may have an ugly secret that involves little boys.ddddddddddddYet another is a member of Sri Lankas Burgher minority, who is as obsessed with cricket as Karunasena is. And somewhere in the final third of the book a bomb explodes at a train station. It happens casually, the death toll described as if in an afterthought.Most of all Chinaman is a book about cricket. Karunatilaka has crafted a thinly veiled version of modern cricket, complete with reviled commentators, horny cricketers, loose women and big, bad money.Did I say the veil was thin? I meant to say it is almost transparent. One of the books minor characters is the Turbanned Indian Commentator. Mentioned frequently enough so that after a while he is just referred to as TIC. Earlier in the book there is a beefy English cricketer, whose idea for a documentary is what really kicks off the hunt for Pradeep Mathew. His name is, but of course, Tony Botham.Karunatilaka skewers cricketers old, new, good and bad, all in style. And with prose that is infectious. Once you get past the first 50 pages, which are the slowest but not by much, the book is - no cliché intended - unputdownable. The mysteries of Pradeep Mathew, combined with the brutal dissection of cricket and the delicious morsels of cricketing trivia come together to form one of the strongest, most immersive plots in a sports novel, or indeed any novel, I have read in a long time.The book is not without its gimmicks. There are a few towards the end that are particularly laboured. And there are a few occasions where the dialogues seem too smart by half. But all good innings have room for a few hoicks over slip. And Chinaman is a Test match-winning innings-at-the-death watch-over-and-over-on-Youtube kind of a book.At least one commentator has called Chinaman the first great Sri Lankan novel. Perhaps it is. It certainly is a superb novel. For all cricket fans, especially those from the subcontinent, it is a compulsory addition to their library.And if you cant stand cricket, this is still a book well worth reading. For sheer scope, ambition and inventiveness. Karunatilaka has smashed this out of the park.Chinaman: The Legend of Pradeep Mathew by Shehan Karunatilaka Random House Currently available in Sri Lanka and online. An Indian edition of this book, due out in January 2011, will be available across the subcontinent ' ' '