Is there a name for my generation?

OK, I’m not a millennial and I thank Bill Slade of Cheshire for finally straightening me out on this. Slade, a classmate at Torrington High School in the long ago, and I were involved in a conversation about this with contemporaries a couple of weeks ago.

The question was, “what is a millennial?’’ Everyone had a guess, but no one could say for sure. Monday, Slade’s email arrived. It said in part: “A recent article in the Catholic Transcript mentions that most researchers and demographers define Millennials as those born between the years 1980 and 1996. They are also known as “echo boomers’’, ie children of the boomers. I would guess that our children are the boomers and our grandchildren are the others. Our parents were part of the Greatest Generation. What the heck are we???’’

I found the article in the most recent issue of the Transcript. Written by Cody Guarnieri, it is headed, “Come Home, Millennials.’’

A great majority of our ma-

Around the Corner

jor league athletes are be-

tween, roughly, 20 and 37 years old, which makes them millennials.

The definition pointed out by Slade, through Guarnieri, is good enough for me but the question remains, for Slade, Canfield and all people of our . . . um, mature age, “what are we?’’

A second email from Slade, the next day, expressed my feelings about it. Wrote Bill, “I would be interested in anyone’s suggestions of a name for our generation. In our 20s and 30s we dealt with both the Korean and Viet Nam conflicts.’’ Anybody?

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The weekend produced startling finishes and I was lucky enough to catch two of them. Everybody I know roots for Jordan Spieth because he’s a “nice kid’’ with the kind of golf game that, 10 years from now, barring injury, will have propelled him to the absolute pinnacle, all-time. But Dustin Johnson, a touch older and a tad more experienced, was better on Sunday, by one little over-

time shot. And speaking of future Hall of Famers . . . that’s Dustin, all right. He is first on the FedEx points and the money lists. Spieth is second on the FedEx and third on the money list. Oh, and by the by, the second-leading money winner, Hideki Matsuyama, bears watching in the FedEx race. He is beyond the dark horse stage, a blue-ribbon threat. Remember, you read it here first.

In the MinnesotaSan Francisco NFL exhibition game, another young dude, third-string quarterback Taylor Heinicke, led a Vikings drive in the final seconds that brought them a 32-31 victory. With no time left, Old Dominion grad Heinicke swept to the right side, threw himself at the flexible orange end zone marker and scored the winning two-point conversion. This bit of spectacular acrobatics was made all the more significant because Heinicke was playing with painfully damaged but not broken, ribs. Another millennial comes through!

•••

Until Dave O’Brien mentioned Umpire Ted Barrett Monday, I had never paid attention to him. But O’Brien and broadcast partner Johnny Gomes brought out the fact that Barrett is a former amateur boxer who had once served as a sparring partner for heavyweight Evander Holyfield. I looked him up and discovered he’s a lot more than that.

Turns out Barrett got a degree in kinesiology from Cal State-Hayward. He was captain of the football team there. He has a masters degree in biblical studies from Trinity College and Seminary, and a PhD in theology with emphasis on Pastoral Ministry from Trinity Theological Seminary.

Barrett is the only ump to have worked two perfect games. He was behind the plate for Yankee David Cone’s masterpiece in 1999 and for the Giants’ Matt Cain in 2012.

His record as an umpire is long and impressive.