Hola, it’s spring! I don’t care what the groundhog saw or didn’t see in Pennsylvania last month. I’ve got my own spring detector, and it’s got nothing to do with robins on the wing. For yours truly, spring officially begins the first time I turn on a television or radio and hear the sound of a baseball game.

Baseball begins in earnest with coverage of spring-training games as well the games of the World Baseball Classic. America’s pastime takes on a truly international dimension tonight when Korea meets Taipei (8:30 p.m., ESPN Deportes). ESPN Deportes is ESPN’s Spanish-language station. Yes, sports fans, that’s a game between Korean- and Chinese-speaking players, broadcast in Spanish. Now that’s a world series.

ESPN networks will cover the entire Baseball Classic, pitting national teams from Asia, Latin America and the United States. ESPN and ESPN2 will cover 16 games between March 7 and March 20. ESPN Deportes will carry all 39 games of the classic.

In addition to The World Baseball Classic, ESPN will cover Major League spring-training games beginning Friday, with a game (noon, ESPN) between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves from Orlando, Fla.

¢ Noah Wyle returns to “ER” (9 p.m., NBC), but he’s far from his old Chicago hospital. Dr. Carter and medical colleagues (Eamonn Walker, “OZ,” and Mary McCormack, “The West Wing”) treat hundreds of refugees in Sudan’s war-ravaged Darfur region.

¢ Did the Winter Games become a TV habit you can’t shake? Still hungry for more luge? “Chasing the Olympic Dream” (7 p.m., Sundance) offers an instant documentary retrospective of the just-completed games produced by NBC News. It seems like yesterday – or last week.

Tonight’s other highlights

¢ Jeff Probst hosts “Survivor Panama: Exile Island” (7 p.m., CBS).

¢ The “American Idol” (7 p.m., Fox) results show used to seem long at 30 minutes. Tonight, they’ve got an hour to kill.

¢ Reese Witherspoon and Patrick Dempsey star in the 2002 comedy “Sweet Home Alabama” (7 p.m., ABC).

¢ Keeping the lid on a bad grade on “Everybody Hates Chris” (7 p.m., UPN).

¢ Lindsay Lohan plays a set of twins bent on reuniting their divorced folks in the 1998 remake of “The Parent Trap” (7 p.m., Family).

¢ A body found in a chimney on “CSI” (8 p.m., CBS) is not wearing a red suit.

¢ Back taxes inspire an act of contrition on “My Name is Earl” (8 p.m., NBC).

¢ Public speaking fears on “The Office” (8:30 p.m., NBC).

¢ Addictive distractions on “Without a Trace” (9 p.m., CBS).

Late night

Harry Connick Jr. appears on “Late Show with David Letterman” (10:35 p.m., CBS) … Jay Leno hosts Salma Hayek on “The Tonight Show” (10:35 p.m., NBC) … Jenna Fischer and Dwayne Perkins chat on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” (11:35 p.m., NBC) … Craig Ferguson hosts Jeremy Bloom, Roseanne Barr and Wolfgang Puck on “The Late, Late Show” (11:37 p.m., CBS).