WEST SACRAMENTO – There was a time when the Giants and A’s engaged in a humdinger of a feud, but it was so long ago that it came when the A’s had the preferred ballpark and outdrew the Giants in attendance every year.

It was back when spring training exhibitions between the teams meant more than just getting your work in. It was otherwise meaningless March baseball, but the teams’ owners pushed their managers and GMs to use their best players because wins were important. Pride was important. Community was important.

All these years later, it’s not the same. At all. In fact, it’s all gone now. There’s no there there. The Giants are playing the A’s this weekend as part of what Major League Baseball calls “Rivalry Weekend,” but the marketing comes under false pretenses.

The Giants-A’s rivalry, or at least what was left of it, is dead.

The Giants might as well be playing the Reds or Marlins this weekend. Or the Sultanes De Monterrey. There’s not the same appeal to Giants-A’s anymore because the A’s aren’t the A’s that we knew and appreciated as the second-city upstarts who always seemed to enjoy infuriating the big boys from the big city across the bay.

Like, I don’t know, the 1989 World Series.

The A’s are forced to play at a tiny minor-league park because that’s what John Fisher wanted. Anything to escape the venom, chants, and protests directed his way at the Coliseum for orchestrating a ruthless and unnecessary relocation out of Oakland.

The teams played Saturday night before another miniscule crowd at Sutter Health Park, a 6-4 Giants victory. It was announced as a sellout, but that’s because 12,000 and change constitutes a sellout at Triple-A facilities. Giants fans are taking over the joint this weekend because (a) Sacramento fans rightfully won’t fully embrace a team they know is Las Vegas-bound and (b) the number of A’s fans dramatically dwindled because of how they were treated by Fisher’s ownership.

It’s a far cry from when the A’s dominated Bay Area attendance and outdrew the Giants five straight years, by a lot. In 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992, the A’s attracted more than 2 million fans annually, peaking at 2.9 million, third most in the major leagues, while the Giants, despite the entertaining Humm Baby era, drew lesser crowds at Candlestick Park.

It wasn’t just because the A’s were a juggernaut; it was because the Haas family ownership and its marketing branch were embedded into the community. Quite simply, A’s fans supported owners who supported them, and they never felt that with Fisher, who ultimately pulled the plug, eliminated the Bay Area’s two-team market, and killed a rivalry.

The story was more complex than that and included issues with local politicians and MLB officials. But the bottom line is, Fisher had a choice and ultimately wrongly decided he knew better than folks who indeed knew better than him – Joe Lacob, Steve Schott, and Lew Wolff all agreed constructing a new stadium at the Coliseum property would have worked.

Make no mistake: the Giants played a role in killing the rivalry, too. Remember, the Giants blocked the A’s from moving to San Jose and Santa Clara, claiming territorial rights, and participated in the unanimous vote among MLB owners (30-0) to approve Fisher’s relocation.

We’re left with a one-team market, an A’s team on the run, and a Giants team that considers it a bother to play in an inferior facility with inferior amenities, just like all other teams that visit here.

It’s not Sacramento’s fault. This is a vibrant baseball city with a rich baseball history, and according to local buzz, officials will reveal a bid for an expansion team on May 28, presumably on property near the current ballpark and along the Sacramento River with views of downtown Sacramento, an ideal location.

If it ever reaches fruition, MLB would have two Northern California teams again, and suddenly a case could be made for the return of a geographic rivalry. No matter how it plays out, it’ll never reach Giant-Dodger heights, which date to the 1800s in New York and was featured earlier this week at Dodger Stadium, but it’ll be far better than any future manufactured “Rivalry Weekend” series between the Giants and Las Vegas A’s.

In an earlier time, before interleague play (pre-1997), the only times the Giants and A’s faced off were in spring training and the Bay Bridge Series that preceded the season openers. A’s owner Walter Haas and Giants owner Bob Lurie took those games seriously and made sure the lineups featured the top players. The A’s generally beat up on the Giants, including when it counted the most, the four-game sweep in the 1989 World Series.

It was also a time both sides poked fun at each other, from GMs to marketers to broadcasters. Team officials used to meet at luncheons before the season on Treasure Island, hosted by the local cable network. When it was once noted that the TV show “Hooked on Golf” was now hitting radio, A’s GM Sandy Alderson said at the podium, “What could possibly be more boring than golf on the radio? The Giants on television.”

When Giants broadcasters bragged about moving into their new park, A’s broadcaster Ray Fosse would remind them the A’s had four World Series trophies to the Giants’ none.

Nowadays, with the Giants possessing three trophies of their own and ownership of the entire Bay Area, any remnants of a rivalry are gone, along with a once-proud franchise that called Oakland home for 57 years.

Granted, the A’s baseball operations department keeps producing young talent that the Giants would love to get their hands on. It’s a credit to David Forst and his staff, disciples of Billy Beane, who was a disciple of Alderson, that the A’s continue to rebuild after all the Fisher fire sales. The A’s lead the American League West, albeit a mediocre division, while the Giants are competing with the Rockies for last place in the National League West.

“Rivalry Weekend” makes sense in some markets where there’s simultaneous civic and community pride, but the Bay Bridge Series and all it stood for is history, sadly.

RIP.