KBO Kicks Off New Season, New TV Deal With ESPN Tuesday
As professional sports leagues in North America continue to sit in a holding pattern looking to lock down a potential date to resume or kick off their seasons, there is light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who have been itching for the return of live sports in some form or fashion, things are starting to get going. We already talked about the return of NASCAR later this month with its first race at Darlington May 17 and the fact that the PGA Tour hopes to return in early June. If you’re looking for the return of baseball, well, you’re in luck as there is going to be some actual action on the diamond as opposed to the video game form we saw over the weekend.
The KBO, the top baseball organization in Korea, is getting their regular season underway on Tuesday. While that may not normally be earthshattering news in the United States, the fact that there is baseball is something to be happy about right now. Even better, for baseball starved fans, the league worked out a deal with ESPN to televise games six nights a week here in North America, starting with the regular season opener between the NC Dinos and the Samsung Lions with first pitch scheduled for 1:05 am ET Tuesday morning. According to the agreement, the network will televise games Tuesday to Sunday. Typically, games will be televised at 5:30 am ET Tuesday to Friday, 4 am ET on Saturday and at 1 am on Sundays.
It’s a massive boost for ESPN and their flagging ratings due to the lack of actual live sports programming. Hammering out a deal with the KBO was a smart move as it gets programming, albeit it at strange hours, in front of the eyes of potential viewers. There aren’t a ton of players that casual fans of major league baseball are going to be familiar with but there are some names. Dan Straily, last seen getting lit up as a member of the Orioles’ gopher ball squad last season, is the best-known major leaguer in the league. There are others as Adrian Sampson, Warwick Saupold, Tyler Wilson and Casey Kelly are also in the mix. Kelly is a former first-round pick of the Red Sox in 2008 and is best known as the cornerstone of the deal that brought Adrian Gonzalez to Beantown.
The KBO has been around since 1982 when it started with six teams. There currently are 10 teams in the league with the Doosan Bears, who have played in the Korean Series each of the last four seasons, the defending champions. They’ll have to contend with the Kiwoom Heroes, the LG Twins, the SK Wyverns and the Kia Tigers, who are the Yankees of the KBO. Kia has won a league-best 11 championships and every time they’ve made the Korean Series, they’ve prevailed. Of course, Kia has fallen on rougher times since their 2017 title: they finished 71-71-2 last season.
The KBO is planning on playing their full 144-game schedule but they have plans in place should COVID-19 pop back up. If a player or coach contracts COVID-19, the season will be shut down for at least three weeks. As expected with the way sports are right now, there will no fans in attendance. On the plus side, for those of you who have been foaming at the mouth to have something to bet on, the KBO provides a fix. There are odds and run lines for the KBO around various sportsbooks for you to get your wagers down. As of Monday afternoon, the NC Dinos are a -150 favorite for ESPN’s televised opener over the Samsung Lions with the over/under set at 8.
While it may not be the Dodgers, Yankees, Cubs or Astros on TV when you tune in to see baseball this week, at least it’s actual action. That alone, is a step in the right direction. Here’s hoping that MLB gets back on the field in the near future as well.