The first time I ever heard the term "late baby" was from the father of a young female athlete. I'm not exactly sure the nature of the discussion, but I do remember thinking, 'Why is he telling me his daughter was born overdue?'

(For full disclosure purposes, sometimes I'm just plain stunned. I have a story about the 90-degree rule in golf that will make your eyes roll, too; but that’s for another day.)

Anyway, the dad apparently wasn't updating me on who won the baby pool and how many days she was past due, but was discussing the disadvantages his daughter was at in her chosen sport. The child, you see, was born in November, if memory serves correctly.

I thought the argument was a bit much right from the start, to be honest. The daughter was head and shoulders over the others kids her age (figuratively, not necessarily literally), and in fact was beating kids two and three years older than her.

The lament from Dear Old Dad was that didn't mean much, because it was all local competition. It was when his daughter competed at the Atlantic or national level that she was at a disadvantage, because kids in her age group were up to 10 or 11 months older.

Something to it?

The discussion opened my eyes to the whole "late baby" phenomenon. After that, during the regular course of my work covering local athletes, birthdates always stood out to me. It would only be natural for a kid with a January birthday to dominate all other 13-year-olds, because he had that extra six or seven or eight months of physical development.

Now comes word from a psychology professor in Michigan that this early birthday phenomenon even impacts the way NHL teams conduct business. During a 27-year period, 36 per cent of NHL draft picks were born early, while only 14.5 per cent of those drafted were born late.

Watch out when some zealous sports parents get their hands on this information. Early birthdays mean more athletic success. You can smell the money from here.

"Honey, I think it's time we started a family."

"What, right now? But the baby won't be born till December! Do you know what kind of hindrance will that cause? There won't be any opportunity to play pro, or get a college scholarship. If we waited a month, we could have a January baby, and he'll dominate whatever sport he plays."

"Good idea, let's wait. We don't want to burden this child with a December birthday."

The kids with January through March birthdates are bigger and stronger, and would push their way to the front of the lines for whatever teams they try out for. This is not universal, by any means, as other factors such as genetics, ability, and interest are factored in also. However, it is clearly a physical advantage to be born in January and play against kids born in September through December, than vice versa. But that starts when you're 12 and ends when you're about 14.

Challenges of equality

The fact of the matter is that some kids are going to be better at sports than others, the same way some kids are better musically or academically. If we were all equal, school teachers would have no reason to mark tests, would they?

Age group sports will always have the challenges of equality. No matter how you slice it, there has to be a cut off from one group to the next. Whether that's the calendar year — giving January kids the head start — or a school calendar — allowing September kids to beat up on May babies — someone is always going to have an advantage. It's part of life.

A look at some of the Newfoundlanders who played in the NHL shows John Slaney with a February birthdate, Dwayne Norris, Terry Ryan and Harold Druken with January dates, and Michael Ryder with March 31 birthdate. Ryane Clowe and Teddy Purcell are September babies; Adam Pardy is May and Luke Adam is June.

But really, is your birthday going to determine your lot in life?

Isn't being successful at whatever you choose to do — athletics, education, art, carpentry — more based upon your abilities, work-ethic, desire and drive to do the best possible job you can?

Any kids home today lamenting the fact they were born on Canada Day and not New Year's Day need to shake their heads, get up and work harder if they think they're disadvantaged. The effort you put in is what will help reap the benefits down the road, not whether you're an Aquarius or Capricorn or Virgo.

Follow Don on Twitter at @PowerPlay27