Seattle Mariners Broadcaster Ryan Rowland-Smith Responds to Recent Public Criticism

James apologized on-air to Rowland-Smith and Arkins on-air to open his show Thursday:

“I want to personally apologize to Ryan Rowland-Smith and Luke Arkins, because neither one of them deserved what I did. It was absolutely unprofessional, it was reprehensible, it was inexcusable. I’m new here and it’s taking me a long time to find the way to get acclimated, and that was not me. That is certainly not someone that my family, my father, would be proud of. And all I ask of you is I ask for your forgiveness. And I hope everybody out there that I can gain your trust, including the local media, especially Ryan and Luke, personally, and my colleagues here at KJR. I do not speak for them. This was on me. I’m the one who did this, and I need to learn a valuable lesson.”

Rowland-Smith finally responded to the week full of controversy in his own post on "X." Aside from a couple quick quips on his accent, the former major leaguer chose to thank Arkins, invited him onto his show and expressed appreciation to the Mariners community:

"It was overwhelming. You guys are amazing, I love you guys — the Mariners community. I'm super proud to be where I'm from, of course. Everyone knows that. But I couldn't be more proud to be part of this Mariners family, man. The response was unreal. It kind of opened up floodgates to how amazing you guys are. I said this five years ago, I'll say it now, I'm so grateful to be back, a part of the Mariners community since getting done playing.
" ... As far as what happened, no one's more self-deprecating than me. If you ever hear me on radio or TV, no one makes fun of myself more than I do. Come from the most self-deprecating country on the planet. ... Besides that, I just want to say thank you. That stuff — it was overwhelming, it was awesome, you guys are amazing and super proud to be a part of this Mariners community."

Rowland-Smith and Goldsmith with be back in the broadcast booth for Game 2 of a four-game set against the Houston Astros at 5:10 p.m. PT on Friday.