What sports to watch on the Fourth of July

Your guide to watching sports on July 4th

The Fourth of July is for many one of the highlights of the year. Food, family, and the chance to watch some fireworks, if you are not lighting them off yourselves.

(Please be safe dear readers).

But the Fourth is also a pretty big day each year when it comes to sports. So if you are looking for what to watch, we have you covered.

Eating

Of course, no July 4th would be complete without a quintessentially American event: The Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. Joey Chestnut is looking for his 16th win in this year’s edition, and hopefully, he does not have to tackle a protester in the process as he did a year ago.

You can watch it on ESPN.

Cycling

The 2023 Tour de France is underway, and today is the fourth stage of cycling’s premier event. This stage takes riders from Dax to Nogaro and is a relatively flat stage, which should set up for a thrilling sprint to the finish. Adam Yates is the current overall leader, but contenders Tadej Pogacar and Jonas Vingegaard are in the hunt.

The Tour de France airs on Peacock and USA today.

MLB

All 30 MLB teams are in action on Tuesday, with 15 games starting at 11:05 a.m. Eastern when the Washington Nationals host Elly De La Cruz and the Cincinnati Reds.

The Reds are really fun again, as we have been telling you.

Tennis

The 2023 Wimbledon Championships got underway on Monday with first-round action. While weather suspended a number of matches, the top two seeds on the Men’s side — Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz — both advanced to the second round with wins.

On the Women’s side, Iga Swiatek has already advanced to the second round as has Jessica Pegula, the highest-seeded American in the Women’s field.

You can watch all the action from Wimbledon on ESPN.

NBA

While the NBA itself is in the summer offseason, free agency is still underway. Many of the major moves have been made, but Damian Lillard could be traded in the coming days.

We have you covered with our live NBA Free Agency tracker on SB Nation. You can also check out our NBA Free Agency hub.

Have a safe and happy Fourth!