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Colin Cowherd thinks Bryce Harper is the Donald Trump of baseball

Professional sports opinion-haver Colin Cowherd has brought us a doozy: He said Bryce Harper is baseball's version of Donald Trump. Well, ummm ... maybe? They do both have fascinating hair.

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Cowherd, who not long ago jumped from ESPN to Fox Sports, has a certain way of cherry-picking facts and bowling over straw men to make his arguments. He also just straight-up puts his foot in his mouth sometimes, like when he said baseball is "too complex" for people from the Dominican Republic. That one expedited his exit from ESPN.

(CSN Washington / AP)
(CSN Washington / AP)

Nothing that controversial this time around. But Trump and Harper is an interesting connection to make. Harper helped by hijacking Trump's "Make America Great Again" catchphrase for a "Make Baseball Fun Again" cap. That was, as the cap says, for fun.

But Cowherd looked for deeper connections about Harper's record-setting endorsement deal with Under Armour and Trump's establishment-shaking presidential campaign. Here's what he had to say, via The Washington Post's D.C. Sports Bog:

“He enters baseball,” Cowherd said of Harper. “It has a proud tradition, it has the oldest fan base. He refuses to play by the rules. Some call him a show-off. There’s a fight with teammates. Gains massive momentum. Fans love him. Wins big deal. Now I’m going to read you Donald Trump. Enters the GOP. Proud tradition, the oldest party. Refuses to play by the rules. Some call him crass. We’ve seen fights. Gains massive momentum. Many people love him. Gets the big win" ...

“One’s a politician, one’s a baseball player, but the one thing I see with both is when you’re an outsider – and I’m not voting for Trump – but if you’re an outsider, man do people come after you,” Cowherd continued. “I mean, Bryce Harper got into a fight with a teammate. [People said] ‘He’s bad for the game,’ people throwing at him because he made people uncomfortable and he was different and big and broad and loud and flashy. He is the only bona fide superstar baseball now has. Clayton Kershaw is great, [but] Bryce Harper is a superstar in America. The sport doesn’t have another one. He is unbelievable and he’s made people totally uncomfortable. He’s got flaws, he’s not for everybody. Some say he’s too showy and too cocky. But there’s a reason he just signed that deal.”

To boil that down even further, Cowherd's argument is basically: "He's successful and divisive + some people don't like him = the same." And while there's certainly a few elements of truth to what Cowherd is saying, it's not hard to find successful people who have a flock of haters.

Like Taylor Swift, for instance. Or Cam Newton. Or LeBron James. Or even Colin Cowherd.

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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!