Baseball returns to ESPN tonight, and the NC Dinos — Tucson's adopted team — are playing in the first game

There's live baseball airing on ESPN tonight, and a Tucson team will be playing. 

The Korean Baseball Organization‘s NC Dinos, who have long held spring training at the Reid Park Annex Fields, will face the Samsung Lions at 10 p.m. Monday in a game that will be shown live on ESPN. The network will air six KBO games a week, providing much-needed — if somewhat obscure — live programming during the coronavirus pandemic. Games are being played in empty stadiums.

The Dinos will return to national television at 2:30 a.m. Thursday, and play on TV twice this weekend: on Saturday at 1 a.m. and again that night at 10. ESPN personalities will provide play-by-play and game analysis remotely from Bristol, Connecticut. Karl Ravech and Eduardo Perez are scheduled to be on Monday night's call.

“The KBO League is one of the greatest baseball leagues with world-class players and many exciting initiatives," league commissioner Un-Chan Chung said. "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 Dinos play in Changwon, South Korea, a city of 1 million people on the southeastern coast. They're probably best known for producing Eric Thames, the slugging left-hander who in November 2016 parlayed a breakthrough season in the KBO into a three-year, $16 million contract with Major League Baseball's Milwaukee Brewers. Thames recently signed a one-year deal with the Washington Nationals. Following in the footsteps of their former star, the Dinos led the KBO in home runs last season.

The Dinos have been training in Tucson since 2012, one year before they played their first game as a KBO expansion team. Players and coaches typically arrive in early January and leave around the first week of March. The Dinos occupy Reid Park Annex Fields 1, 2, 4 and 5, located beyond the outfield wall at Hi Corbett Field.

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The Dinos and the KBO's KT Wiz and SK Wyverns — both of whom train at Kino Sports Complex — left town in early March, just before travel was shut down. 

"There there was talk about them staying, and both teams were thinking of staying longer," said Mike Hayes, the deputy director of Tucson Parks and Rec and the city's point person for the Dinos.

Hayes said the Dinos are ideal tenants, noting that they've scrimmaged against the Arizona Wildcats in the past and are always "extremely respectful" of both the facility and city workers. Hayes said Reid Park employees frequently check the Dinos' place in the standings during the regular season.

Now they'll get to see for themselves.

Here's a look at the Dinos in Tucson: