Volume 6, Issue 29: Before Sunset

Baby, you are gonna miss that plane.

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The World Cup never fails to remind me how little I know about the planet. There is so much on this earth that I have never seen, that I likely never will see, and so many people and so cultures that I have never been introduced to and will surely never have time to truly understand. I mean, I don’t know anything about Idaho; how in the heck am I supposed to learn about Uzbekistan?

This week, I went to my first-ever World Cup game, checking off one of my last Bucket List sports events. I saw a pretty great one.

The game was Spain, one of the favorites to win the whole tournament, and Cabo Verde, a country just off the coast of West Africa with fewer residents than Mesa, Arizona. The match turned out to be one of the biggest upsets in World Cup history, with Cabo Verde fighting Spain to 0-0 draw. (My old friend Chuck Culpepper wrote a wonderful piece about it for ESPN.) It was an incredibly inspiring game, and seeing the Cabo Verde fans celebrate afterwards—to have this moment of national pride, for the whole planet to see—was something I found unquestionably moving.

I even went out and celebrated with them a bit myself.

But I of course still know nothing about Cabo Verde. Which makes it like just about every other country on earth.

Growing up in a small town in rural Illinois, the idea of visiting another country was something that honestly never really occurred to me until years after I left. I mean, leaving Mattoon was hard enough; going to St. Louis was about as exotic as I could imagine as a kid. (Dave Eggers, who grew up in the north suburbs of Chicago, once wrote that, to suburban kids up there, “Chicago was the promised land, and everything else was China.” For Mattoon kids, everything beyond Champaign was China.) Until I was nearly 30 years old, I had only left the country once in my life, when my family, after visiting the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown (a place I haven’t been since, by the way), briefly drove across the border into Canada to see the other side of Niagara Falls. We scampered back as quickly as we could. America had so much I hadn’t seen; it would take my whole life just catch up with half of it. The rest of the world? What are we, Rockefellers?

This remains one of my biggest regrets. Because here I am, at the age of 50, and I still feel like I’ve never been anywhere, like I haven’t really seen anything. I am the ugliest American.

Here, entering my sixth decade of life, are the only other countries I’ve ever been to:

• Canada (1987: aforementioned Niagara Falls cameo).

• Canada again (2002: a friend’s date to her brother’s wedding; did get to see an Expos game).

• St. Kitts and Nevis, Antigua, Barbuda, St. Bart’s (2006: as a stowaway on a friend’s private boat, written briefly about in a piece for The Athletic last year).

• Argentina (2006: on a trip with friends for New Years Eve).

• Turks and Caicos (2008: trip with girlfriend, later wife).

• France (2008: trip to Paris with girlfriend, later wife).

• Belize (2010: honeymoon).

• Canada again (2012: to watch a Blue Jays game).

• Russia (2014: Winter Olympics in Sochi).

• Mexico (2020: to see Wilco in Mexico City a month before Covid).

• England (2023: to see the Cardinals play with my parents in 2023, their first international trip since Dad was in the Air Force).

• Anguilla (2026: family trip, first time either child has left the country, at the ages of 14 and 11).

Is that low? It seems low, though I suspect for many Americans it’s quite high. But it feels wholly inadequate, especially considering I didn’t spend nearly enough time in any of these places to see them at anything more than a surface level; I didn’t spend longer than a week in any of them but Russia, and it’s fair to say that Sochi, during an Olympics, hardly resembles a representative sample of that country. (Especially considering what has happened there since I left.) My wife, after she graduated from college, lived in Spain for six months. I’ve always been envious of that, and not just because I joined the dreary working real world mere days after I graduated: She has actually lived somewhere else, seen it on a day-to-day basis, been the outsider who had to find her way around, and actually exist. I’ve forever been a tourist.

But I think, at this point, I’m too old to be anything but.

Thus, as I get even older, one can’t help thinking about that Bucket List, cities in other countries I’ve never been but will feel sort of incomplete if I never go there at least once. So, if you will indulge me, as I finish up a rather exhausting work week (there has been no busier time for someone who mostly writes about sports for non-sports publications than the convergence of the World Cup, the Knicks and Trump’s UFC grotesquerie), I am going to list this places here so that I can someday look back at this post, as I lie on my deathbed, and realize I never ended up visiting any of them.

Tokyo.

Probably first on this list, though I’m a little worried all I’d do is eat sushi and watch baseball the whole time I was there. I’m told there are also other things, though those two would be enough.

Venice.

My favorite cities are ones that have water running through them, and the idea of just boating from a great restaurant back home is irresistible.

Vienna.

This is probably only because of Before Sunrise.

Rome.

As someone in awe of how old so many buildings were when I visited London, I think Rome would blow my mind. This is the most likely city on this list for me to actually visit, since I’ve promised my mom a Vatican trip at some point.

Cannes.

My podcast co-host Tim Grierson goes to the film festival every year but is always so busy seeing every movie that he never gets to spend much actual time in the city. I think I could figure out a way to avoid that mistake.

I know: Probably a little basic. But I’ve never been anywhere! If you are feeling particularly passionate, I’d love to hear the case for the best international city visits you’ve taken in your life. I’ll add them to my own list, and then surely never actually get around to going.

Here is a numerical breakdown of all the things I wrote this week, in order of what I believe to be their quality.

1. The Knicks Did It Holy Crap, New York. I just tried to capture the moment on this one.

2. The Grotesquerie of UFC Freedom 250 Went Far Beyond the Fighters, The New York Times. It had been a while since I wrote for the Times proper, I was delighted they asked me to do this one.

3. The Cardinals Need To Stop Thinking of Themselves As Sellers, MLB.com. They’re not! They’re good! (Last few days excepted.)

4. Steven Spielberg Is Younger Than Most of Us, The Washington Post. I like the spirit of Disclosure Day probably more than the film itself, but I do like the spirit.
   
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5. Players Who Deserve More All-Star Voting Love, MLB.com. As long as Jordan Walker makes it.

6. This Week’s Power Rankings, MLB.com. I cannot believe how high the White Sox are here.

PODCASTS

Grierson & Leitch, We discussed “Disclosure Day” and “Dazed and Confused.”

Morning Lineup, I was off this week.

Seeing Red, Bernie and I talked the trade deadline thoughts.

LONG STORY YOU SHOULD READ THIS MORNING … OF THE WEEK

“Trump Solo,” Mark Singer, The New Yorker. Longtime New Yorker writer Mark Singer just died, and while he’s perhaps most famous for this piece about Ricky Jay from 1993, this profile of Donald Trump in 1997 feels like it was written five minutes ago. Had the entire planet read it when it was written, the world would be infinitely better right now.

ONGOING LETTER-WRITING PROJECT!

This is your reminder that if you write me a letter and put it in the mail, I will respond to it with a letter of my own, and send that letter right to you! It really happens! Hundreds of satisfied customers!

Write me at:

Will Leitch
P.O. Box 48
Athens GA 30603

CURRENTLY LISTENING TO

“Room at the Top,” Tom Petty. We haven’t had a Tom Petty song in long time around here, time to correct that.

Remember to listen to The Official Will Leitch Newsletter Spotify Playlist, featuring every song ever mentioned in this section. Let this drive your listening, not the algorithm!

Can’t … stop … looking … at … parade … photos.

Have a great weekend, all.


Best,
Will