Fourth of July weekend watch guide: What we’re streaming, from World Cup to ‘The Sandlot’

Friday is observed as a federal holiday, and Saturday is the Fourth of July itself. Sunday … well, summer Sundays mean “feet are off the ground.”

We hope the readership gets some sun and some barbecue, but we also know that a serious heat wave is hitting much of the country. For those choosing to bask in their air conditioning, there’s no shortage of diversions to sit down with this weekend.

Our staff is choosing to spend part of the next few days with Jannik Sinner and Coco Gauff; Harry Kane and Shohei Ohtani; Biff Tannen and Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez. Here’s what we recommend you queue up on your basement flatscreens and backyard projectors.

Fourth of July weekend sports guide

* based on regional market

CBS, Fox and NBC are free over the air. CBS is also available on Paramount+. Fox is also available on Fox One. ESPN is also available on ESPN Unlimited.

Sports to watch

Wimbledon

This Fourth of July, why not enjoy a slice of one of the most unique sporting events on Earth? Wimbledon is the oldest and most prestigious tennis major, and the only played on grass. Players must wear all white, with other classic traditions including eating strawberries and cream. It’s a sports summertime staple, often with blue skies and sunshine above the lush green grounds, and has a lovely air of calm and friendliness.

The third round includes world No. 1 Jannik Sinner against Jenson Brooksby, Novak Djokovic against Arthur Rinderknech and Coco Gauff taking on Claire Liu. — Max Mathews, Live staff writer

Golden State Valkyries at Atlanta Dream

There are two WNBA games on national television this weekend. Sunday is the clear marquee, with the live-wire Indiana Fever heading west to meet the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces. But that shine is dimmed by injuries — Caitlin Clark hasn’t played since June 24 due to back pain, and A’ja Wilson missed the Commissioner’s Cup championship game after she rolled her ankle on June 28.

With that in mind, my W recommendation goes to the Valkyries and Dream on CBS. These two cracked the top five of The Athletic’s latest power rankings. They’re both dark-horse title contenders with defined identities. No team takes or makes more 3s than Golden State. And as of Thursday, Atlanta leads the league in offensive rebounding and fast-break scoring.

Gabby Williams, a first-time All-Star starter, is having an electric season in amethyst. Fellow Valkyrie Janelle Salaün can light it up from long range. Allisha Gray, Rhyne Howard and Angel Reese counter as a true big three for ATL. The Dream are out for redemption after back-to-back losses in San Francisco last week. — Steven Louis Goldstein, Streaming staff writer

The Prefontaine Classic

This year’s Prefontaine Classic, the annual Diamond League athletics meet at Hayward Field in Oregon, has some lineup. There will be events on Friday evening, including an assortment of middle-distance races, in which teenage star Cooper Lutkenhaus will race over 800m and double Olympic medalist Grant Fisher is scheduled to compete in the two mile.

It’s such a worthwhile watch because all the Nike athletes turn up — this is Oregon after all. Hayward Field, renovated a few years ago, is an exceptional stadium and so many top performances happen there, in part because this falls right in the middle of the outdoor track season.

The Bowerman Mile is the headliner Saturday — Americans Yared Nuguse and Cole Hocker will hope to impress in that. Elsewhere, Melissa Jefferson-Wooden takes on Sha’Carri Richardson in the women’s 100m, a matchup of the 2025 and 2023 world champions in the distance. NCAA champion and 10.63s athlete Adaejah Hodge will be in that race too.

Great Britain’s Keely Hodgkinson will run over two laps as she chases the 800m world record this summer, and with Masai Russell and Tobi Amusan set to battle it out in the 100m hurdles, there’s world-record potential there too. Ja’Kobe Tharp, fresh off winning the NCAA 110m hurdles title and breaking the world record in the prelims at Hayward Field, returns to take on the world’s best in the men’s event.

By World Athletics’ points system, the 2025 meeting was the best one-day event in track and field history, featuring 1,500m and 5,000m world records. Don’t miss this one. — Liam Tharme, Football Tactics writer

Chicago White Sox at Cleveland Guardians

You’re not going to believe this, but I think the can’t-miss series over the weekend is happening in Cleveland, as the White Sox come to town to try to bury the Guardians and take a commanding lead in the AL Central. The Guardians (still) can’t hit, but their pitching has kept them more or less afloat in a shoddy division (in a shoddy AL).

Meanwhile, the White Sox, who have been kicked around for the last few years of a rebuild, are an exciting young team threatening to make the playoffs for the first time since 2021. — Levi Weaver, The Windup writer

St. Louis Cardinals at Chicago Cubs

If the South Siders don’t do it for ya, how about Wrigley under the lights? The Cubs host the Cardinals to renew one of baseball’s oldest, most ferocious rivalries. This series summons so much — Al Hrabosky and Bill Matlock, Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa, “Three Nights in August.” Accordingly, Saturday’s game earns primetime “Baseball Night in America” treatment from Fox.

Some misfortunate souls on the East Coast get the New York Mets and Atlanta Braves. I wouldn’t wish those comically undignified Mets on anyone. But a majority of markets can tune in over the air for this solid NL Central draw, which has the broadcast A-team of Joe Davis and John Smoltz on the call.

Chicago starts the series with the fourth-most runs scored in MLB. Pete Crow-Armstrong comes in off an absurd June line of .381/.468/.781. St. Louis matches with a rising star outfielder of its own, as Jordan Walker owns the fastest swing in the sport. STL teed off the last time it saw Cubs probable starter Shota Imanaga back in late May. — SLG

Brazil vs. Norway

This World Cup has everything. Heart-pounding endings that leave even neutral fans completely stressed out. Celebrations that have gone viral. The inevitability of soccer’s superstars.

Earlier this week, Norway gave us all of the above. Elite striker Erling Haaland, who kinda looks like a young Vigo the Carpathian from “Ghostbusters II” if Vigo the Carpathian could finish, came through with an 86th-minute goal in the round of 32 to put away Ivory Coast. Afterward, Haaland and company took the field and performed their signature Viking Row to ring in their first World Cup knockout-round win.

Haaland is Norway’s best chance at beating Brazil, which has more men’s World Cup championships than any other nation. He has five goals so far this tournament, just one shy of Kylian Mbappé and Lionel Messi in the Golden Boot race. But Brazil, which needed a stoppage-time goal to top Japan last round, has several big names of its own, including playmaker Vinícius Júnior (four goals) and brick-wall goalkeeper Alisson (84.6 save percentage).

I don’t have a rooting interest here, but I’ll be watching on Sunday to find out which team pulls off a first for its country. Despite its storied World Cup history, Brazil has zero victories over Norway in international play, while Norway has never made it past the round of 16.

There is one near certainty this weekend, though. We are pretty much guaranteed to see more of Haaland’s endearingly goofy antics on social media. So what’s next for his Snapchat? I’m going to guess he’ll post about Gabriel Magalhães or Vini Jr. again … or maybe something about the Minions. — Sarah Hardy, Streaming senior editor

Mexico vs. England

“It’s Coming Home,” as word would have it. But there’s no home advantage quite like Estadio Azteca. Sunday night’s banger between big-name England and host nation Mexico is the rumbling centerpiece of my sports weekend.

Both sides gave us had-to-see-it scenes in their previous matches. Down 1-0 to DR Congo, England looked thoroughly dejected until Harry Kane found the back of the net. Then, deliverance in the 86th minute — Kane’s second goal of the second half was powerful, precise and some kind of magic.

Mexico’s 2-0 win against Ecuador wasn’t as nail-biting, but the euphoric final whistle shook screens around the planet. Strikes from Julián Quiñones and Raúl Jiménez broke a 40-year curse in men’s World Cup knockouts.

Thomas Tuchel and the English have the stronger pedigree. They’re fourth in FIFA’s world rankings, while their opponents jumped from 14th to 10th. But Javier Aguirre and the Mexican squad have the Azteca advantage — a familiarity with the altitude and a boost from the stands.

Three Lions. El Tri. Good things very much come in that number. — SLG

San Diego Padres at Los Angeles Dodgers

NBC Sports is trying something novel, if overstimulating, with 15 national TV baseball games spread across its “Star-Spangled Sunday.” Most of those matchups land on NBCSN or Peacock, but Padres-Dodgers warrants “Sunday Night Baseball” packaging on NBC proper. It’s Fernando Tatis Jr., and Shohei Ohtani, and a long line of All-Star regulars.

The Padres and Dodgers do not like each other. Not even a little bit. Recent flips of this beef have riled up spectators and at least one goose. We’ve already seen two SD-LA thrillers in 2026. Michael King outdid Yoshinobu Yamamoto in a gem of a pitching duel on May 18. Alex Call’s frantic dash around the bases sealed a wild, contested Dodgers comeback the following night.

Let’s see what this series finale brings. Chavez Ravine at sunset is quite an agreeable end point for the loaded live sports slate. — SLG

Fourth of July movie and TV recommendations

‘A League of Their Own’

Streaming on Netflix

‘Back to the Future’ trilogy

Friday, 3 p.m. to Saturday, 3:30 a.m. on AMC

I own at least three physical copies of the “Back to the Future” trilogy, and yet there’s something magical about stumbling upon these movies on a random cable channel, an unexpected treat that instantly brightens my day.

And somehow, no matter how many times I’ve seen BTTF, there’s new context to discover each time. For example, in the sequel, Older Biff uses a result from a college football game between UCLA and Washington to convince Younger Biff that his copy of Grays Sports Almanac is legit. What had been a Pacific Coast Conference matchup in 1955 is now a Big Ten matchup. Imagine telling even 2015 Biff that!

“Back to the Future Part II” also tried to warn us about the dangers of unregulated sports betting, too much power in the hands of a megalomaniac and the Cubs winning a World Series. We did not listen. — Hardy

‘The Twilight Zone’

Saturday on SyFy; July 2-6 on Heroes & Icons

My annual holiday tradition is crossing over into “The Twilight Zone,” and much to my delight, there are once again two TV marathons this year.

There’s the long-established one on SyFy, an all-day block on July 4. The second is on Heroes & Icons, which has gone all out in its efforts to differentiate its marathon from SyFy’s. The impeccably named “Rod, White & Blue” is a four-day extravaganza that started July 2 and goes until 6 a.m. ET on July 6.

The H&I version includes episodes from the lesser-known “The New Twilight Zone” series from the 1980s. While nothing can compare to Rod Serling’s original, the ’80s reboot has a few classics in its own right that are worth checking out: the “To Serve Man”-like eight-minute segment called “A Small Talent for War”; the Harlan Ellison-penned doppelgänger episode “Shatterday” starring Bruce Willis; the eminently creepy “Gramma” with the kid from “The Neverending Story,” based on a Stephen King story.

This year, I will be tuning in for “Dealer’s Choice,” which I have never seen and which might be of interest to fellow sports fans. The episode, directed by Wes Craven, is about a poker game. The twist? One of the players is the devil himself, and someone’s soul is on the line. It has an absolutely stacked cast featuring Morgan Freeman, Garrett Morris, Barney Martin, and a “Blood Simple” reunion with M. Emmet Walsh and Dan Hedaya. “Dealer’s Choice” airs at 7 a.m. ET on July 4 (that’s pretty early for a holiday, so on second thought, I will be recording this one). — Hardy

‘Jaws’

Sunday, 6 p.m. ET on AMC

For a few years now, my wife and I have hit the July 4 “Jaws” matinee at our neighborhood theater. The 35mm screening gives it a certain refinement. The person in a felt shark costume leading pre-film pump-up deserves SAG-AFTRA accreditation. Was it Paul Revere who insisted that popcorn before hot dogs is a life well lived?

“Jaws” is a consummate movie for Saturday’s proceedings. It takes place during Fourth of July weekend, of course. It’s an all-time blockbuster that centers on a small New England beach town. John Williams is an American hero. And it evokes such a vast range of American narratives — “Moby-Dick” and “The Old Man and the Sea,” horror and campiness, camaraderie and humility.

“For we’ve received orders for to sail back to Boston.” All aboard now. — SLG

‘The Sandlot’

Sunday, 8 p.m. ET on ABC

There are few movies that offer more potent summer nostalgia than “The Sandlot,” the 1993 baseball film directed by David Mickey Evans. The film tells the tale of a group of neighborhood boys playing baseball and hanging out in the summer of 1962. In truth, there is no bad time to turn on “The Sandlot.” But it pairs perfectly with the Fourth of July. In the film, the holiday’s fireworks light up the sky and provide the only opportunity to play a night game. The scene is indelible. As is the whole movie.

“It’s a piece of time,” Evans told me in 2023, on the occasion of the film’s 30th anniversary. “It’ll never be anachronistic. The entire experience of seeing that movie is never going to change. The experience of seeing the movie will give you that feeling.”

“The Sandlot” isn’t so much a movie as it is a state of mind, a summer vibe to make you feel young again. In fact, this year Major League Baseball is collaborating with drive-in movie theaters in Paramount, Calif., Blue Ridge, Ga., McHenry, Ill., and Vineland, N.J., to air the film on Saturday. No matter where you are, watch it this weekend with your kids. — Rustin Dodd, Peak senior writer

Streaming links in this article are provided by partners of The Athletic. Restrictions may apply. The Athletic maintains full editorial independence. Partners have no control over or input into the reporting or editing process, and do not review stories before publication.

This article originally appeared in The Athletic.

Chicago Cubs, Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Guardians, Los Angeles Dodgers, San Diego Padres, St. Louis Cardinals, Mexico Men’s national team, Atlanta Dream, England, Brazil, Golden State Valkyries, Norway, MLB, WNBA, Soccer, Culture, Tennis, Global Sports, Fubo Partnership, How to Watch, How to Watch the World Cup

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