Final vintage baseball game played at Detroit's Navin Field

DETROIT (WJBK) - Players gave it their all in the last annual vintage baseball game at Navin Field in Detroit on Saturday afternoon.

Organizers said the game has brought lovers of the sport from all over the Midwest for the past six years.

"We have players from around Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, (and) Illinois who re-create baseball as it was played in the post-Civil War era in the 1860s and 1870s," said event organizer Michael Preacher Copado.

Joe Michnuk, a member of the Navin Field ground crew, said this is the last weekend the group will play vintage baseball before the Detroit Police Athletic League begins a housing and retail project on the property.

"We have vintage baseball players, we have fans, we have other people that just want to play baseball that showed up here today to celebrate the fact that this is the last weekend until PAL breaks ground next week for their new project on Wednesday," he said.

The sport has even helped break barriers for women, said vintage baseball player Evette Griffore, captain of the Detroit River Bells.

"This was the first time in history that women were finally at an equal with men for something," she said. "Because they couldn't own land, they couldn't go out in public without a chaperone. As the exposure of baseball got bigger, women were starting to be allowed into the public events to watch the sport."

The players don't know where the games will be played next, but organizers are looking at a field in Hamtramck where the Negro League games took place.

Click here for more information about vintage baseball at Navin Field.