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Yankees need more than a record to give season meaning

SEATTLE — So when exactly did “Too many home runs!” become a thing?

Some time after 1997, it appears.

“No, I don’t remember that being a complaint,” Edgar Martinez, then the Mariners’ designated hitter and now their hitting coach, said in an interview Friday at Safeco Field. “I think obviously in the Kingdome, it was a hitter’s ballpark. We knew that we would score runs.

“If there was a complaint, it was that we didn’t have enough pitching.”

The 1997 Mariners have enjoyed considerable attention here in 2018 because they hold the all-time team record with 264 home runs.