After mocking Seattle Mariners analyst Ryan Rowland-Smith for his accent, KJR sports radio host Marc James issued an apology.
Thursday morning, James opened his KJR midday show with apologies for Rowland-Smith and popular Mariners blogger Luke Arkins.
In a since deleted post, James threatened to get Arkins banned from the airwaves after the Mariners blogger called him out on social media for mocking Rowland-Smith’s accent.
Here’s the Marc James apology #KJR#MarcJames#TridentsUp #RyanRowlandSmith#LukeArkins pic.twitter.com/Ou3sJqNoLX
— Chris Lyle (@lylestyle23) May 22, 2025
“I want to sincerely apologize for my actions which transpired on Tuesday,” James began. “And 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.”
The Mariners added Rowland-Smith, who is from Australia, as a contributor to their TV and radio broadcasts before this season. Rowland-Smith, who previously pitched four seasons with the Mariners, also joined MLB Network as an analyst last year. James was hired by KJR earlier this year and joined the Seattle market in February, after previous career stops in Miami, Atlanta, Charlotte, Boston and Tampa.
“I’m new here and it’s taking me a long time to find the way to get acclimated, and that was not me,” James insisted. “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.
“And I will take this as someone who has a lot of work to do, I’m a very flawed individual. This is not indicative of the type of human being that I am. So I ask you, Seattle to give me a chance. And hopefully, in time, I will earn your trust and you will forgive me and understand that something as unprofessional and unacceptable as I did, does not define who I am.”
The controversy began during Tuesday’s show on KJR, when Marc James read a text message from a listener that said: “Why the Mariners chose marble mouth Rowland-Smith over Bill Krueger is beyond me. It kinda helps to be able to understand your Major League broadcasters!”
James eagerly agreed with the assessment of Rowland-Smith, adding, “I can’t understand what he says…you have this Aussie guy, I feel like I’m watching Australian rules football…it’s so out of place, I don’t get it.”
After reading another text, James mocked Rowland-Smith’s pronunciation of “fastball” and “broadcast,” claiming “that’s not baseball” before asking for a “barf bag.”
During the rant, James dubbed himself “the voice of the fans…the voice of the voiceless.” 48 hours later, and just three months into his tenure in the market, James now vows to earn the trust of those same Seattle fans he thought he was speaking for.
This is not the first time Marc James has found controversy in his career. In 2017, the sports media personality was suspended by NESN after a woman shared angry and inappropriate text messages that allegedly came from James.