ESPN airing live baseball from South Korea

Live professional baseball returns to television this week. ESPN said Monday it will begin airing six regular-season games per week from South Korea's Korea Baseball Organization, starting with opening day on Tuesday.

"We're thrilled to become the exclusive English-language home to the KBO League and to showcase its compelling action and high-level of competition," said Burke Magnus, ESPN's executive vice president of programming. "We have a long-standing history of documenting the game of baseball and we're excited to deliver these live events to sports fans." Coverage begins with Tuesday's game between the NC Dinos and Samsung Lions on ESPN at 1 a.m. ET.

Most games will air on ESPN2 as follows (all times Eastern): 5:30 a.m. Tuesdays through Fridays; 4 a.m. on Saturdays; and 1 a.m. on Sundays. "The KBO League is one of the greatest baseball leagues with world-class players and many exciting initiatives," KBO commissioner Un-Chan Chung said, per ESPN. "During this unprecedented and difficult time, I hope the KBO League can bring consolation to the communities and provide guidelines to the world of sports. I am pleased that the KBO League can be introduced globally and hope this can be an opportunity for the development of our league and the sport."

The KBO season was originally scheduled to start on March 28 but was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. --Field Level Media