Former Major Leaguer Hackman Leads Uni-President Lions in Taiwan Series

Written by: Jerry Milani on 28th October 2009

Former Major Leaguer Hackman Leads Uni-President Lions in Taiwan Series | read this item

The Major League Baseball World Series isn’t the only one going on this month, as leagues across the globe culminate their respective seasons with championships.

The Taiwan Series went the full seven games, with the Uni-President Lions outlasting the Brother Elephants, 5-2, in the deciding contest earlier this week to capture their third straight and seventh overall championship trophy in the 20-year history of Taiwan’s CPBL (Chinese Professional Baseball League).

The Brother Elephants, who have six CPBL titles, and Weichuan Dragons are the only other teams to win three straight Taiwan Series crowns.

Luther Hackman

Former major league pitcher Luther Hackman played a big role in the Lions’ triumph, permitting just two runs (one earned) on five hits, five walks, and striking out three through six innings.

Hackman was voted as the MVP for this Taiwan Series, starting and winning Games One, Four, and Seven. In the Series, Hackman pitched a total of 20 innings, allowing 21 hits and 16 walks, fanning 16, and posting a 3.60 ERA.

Hackman is affectionately nicknamed “Uncle Hai” (Hai is the Taiwanese way of pronouncing the front-half of his surname – Hackman) by the legions of Un-President Lions supporters and baseball fans in Taiwan. He was already called “Uncle Hai” last season when he helped the Lions to their second championship crown.

“It’s great to win for the team and take this championship,” said Hackman. “I just wanted to go in and have a good game. Even though it was not easy, we had to go to Game Seven, but I was confident we will win out in the end.”

Hackman’s fellow Mississippi native Kenny Rayborn started Games Three and Six for the Lions but did not figure in the decisions in either.

In the decisive Game Seven, Hackman left after the sixth inning with a 3-2 lead. The Lions had scored two runs in the second inning on three hits. They added one more in the third frame on a double and a sacrifice fly to go in front 3-0.

The Elephants narrowed the gap to within one, when they plated two runs across on two doubles and a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning to make it 3-2.

Lions’ save leader Lin Yue-Ping (nicknamed “The Big Pancake”) took over for Hackman, and his teammates scored two more runs in the seventh frame on two walks and and two singles, for the final margin.

In the eighth, Dominican pitcher Nerio Rodriguez came in to set up closer Pan Wei-Lun (“Du Du”), who was the winning pitcher in Game Two. Pan fanned Elephants outfielder Chen Kuan-Jen (“The Little Airplane”) swinging on a slider for the final out, to secure the Taiwan Series win.

Former Colorado Rockies pitcher Tsao Chin-Hui took the loss for the Elephants, going six innings and gave up three runs (only one earned run, two unearned) on five hits, three walks, and also had four strikeouts.

In the post-game interview, Lions manager Lu Wen-Seng said, “This had been a difficult but exciting series, but we won because of total team effort. I just let the players do their thing without too many restrictions. It is best for the players to just swing away for the hits. There is no need to dictate game strategy, such as hit-and-run, or sacrifice bunt. They know their roles and how to do their job to win games.”

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Topics: Baseball Fans, Baseball World Series, Championship Crown, Championship Trophy, Cpbl, Crowns, Decisive Game, Elephants, Game Even Though, Good Game, History Of Taiwan, International, League Pitcher, Legions, Lions, Lugher Hackman, Luther Hackman, Major League Baseball, Major Leaguer, Professional Baseball League, Seven Games, Sixth Inning, Taiwan Series