It was the sixth championship crown for the Tainan City-based team, tying it with the Brother Elephants as the most crowned franchise in Taiwan's Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL) history.

Lions starter Luther Hackman from the United States was nearly flawless in a 112-pitch complete game masterpiece against the dangerous Elephants lineup.

Hackman, a former St. Louis Cardinal, allowed four-hits and two walks while striking out four and was named the Series MVP with wins in Game 4 and Game 7.

"I knew this was a big game, so I just went out there to compete and have some fun," Hackman said. "We have a good team here, and they played great defense behind me. They helped to kill off a couple of runs by the other team, and kept our momentum going.

"It's a great feeling to win a championship with this team. I want to come back next year with the Lions for another championship run," he added.

About his pitching approach, he said, "I tried to mix it up with my fastball and off-speed stuff. It was important to get ahead in the count and keep the batters guessing. I also worked fast, and tried to keep a good rhythm going throughout the game."

Hackman got enough run support in the third inning, when the Lions scored two runs on a double, a sacrifice, and a throwing error by Elephants first baseman Wan Jin-yong.

The game's turning point came in the fifth, when the Elephants threatened to level the score.

With the Lions up 2-0, the Elephants put runners at the corners with only one out when second baseman Chen "The Red Turtle" Chiang-ho lofted a fly ball to deep right field.

Lions rightfielder Liu "Little Pot" Fu-hao, who played solid defense throughout the series, made a catch on the run for the second out and then fired a laser to catcher Kao Chi-kang to nail the Brother runner who tagged up at third.

The double play deflated the Elephant players and their fans, while the partisan Lions crowd exploded to applaud the sterling defensive play.

Full of momentum, the Lions gave Hackman some insurance in the bottom of the inning, when with two outs and a man on, DH Chen "The Tall Guy" Lien-hong blasted a 3-2 fastball over the center field wall for a two-run homer and a 4-0 lead.

"It was like a tug-of-war. Both teams fought hard and the series went back-and-forth. I'm glad we kept the pressure on and gave our best team performance tonight and won the championship for our home fans," ecstatic Lions manager Lu Wen-sheng said.

With the completion of the Taiwan Series, the CPBL wrapped up the 2008 season on a high note. Every game of the best-of-seven championship series between the two popular ballclubs received enthusiastic support by local fans with capacity, or near-capacity, crowds.

But one gripping series could not eliminate the pressing issues faced by the league, including declining regular season attendance because of the recurrence of players colluding with underground rackets to fix games.

In the past year, the dmedia T-Rex actually lost its franchise rights and was booted out of the league in the final week of the season.

A police investigation revealed that team owners and management were in collusion with underground gambling syndicates to fix games.

The T-Rex players under their charge were either coerced with money or threats to throw games to help gamblers earn tens of millions of Taiwan dollars in illegal profits by betting on the games.

A number of big-name T-Rex players have been arrested, and the team has been dissolved, thus leaving CPBL with only five teams to start next season.

The CPBL will try to build on the good feeling from the Taiwan Series and try to restore the integrity of the game to draw back fans, but is facing a stiff challenge as teams continue to lose money and TV rights fees may fall because of the dmedia scandal.