In Michigan, the Tigers haven't won a World Series since 1984. That team was mixed racially, but the biggest stars were Caucasian(Trammell, Gibson, Morris, Evans) or Latino(Willie Hernandez). Lou Whitaker is the only Black American star on that team I can think of. Since the late 80's the Tigers have been doormats. The only Michigan baseball star I can think of offhand is Derek Jeter.
Basketball, Football, and Hockey on the otherhand are huge here and get our best athletes. The Red Wings are huge everywhere, but especially in the Detroit suburbs. The college hockey programs are huge, and Michigan's youth hockey program is go big, there's waiting lists. Even 15 years ago, icetime at a local rink went for $300 an hour. That was also late night. There's also strong junior hockey programs in this state(although they draft from all over). There are also at least SEVEN Division I college hockey teams in addition to the junior teams here. People follow their local college stars. That's not even mentioning the big NHL names from Michigan. The Hatchers, Al Iafrate, Mike Modano, Pat LaFontaine, Mark Howe, and The Millers come to mind immediately.
On football, even with the Lions struggling, they sell out sometimes still, and football is huge all over the state both in suburbia and the inner cities. They are like our "Cubs". As much as I hate to say it being a Spartan, Michigan Football is also big, especially with Ann Arbor being 30 miles West of Detroit. Spartans are big as well, although moreso with basketball. Where I went to high school, most of our best athletes played football, and a couple went to hockey, although we did have a good baseball team too. That said, when I played football, we had 8000 people at one of our games.
Basketball is the king over in the inner cities of Flint and Detroit. Flint has long been a pipeline of basketball players. Most of the Michigan State National Championship Team came from Flint. Detroit used to me U-M's backyard for basketball. Chris Webber and Morris Peterson are two big names in the NBA currently. The Bad Boys teams of the Pistons in the past still have a legacy. Today's Pistons sold out every game for the past couple of years, and the "PSL" league in Detroit gets all the college scouts as well as major crowds. Same with the Flint schools. There was a story of a former U-M coach who wasn't let(fire marshall) in to scout and recruit at a Flint game. He didn't get there early enough. And there are a LOT of Michiganders and/or U-M/MSU players in the NBA.
Also important is the high school seasons. Football only competes with Soccer. Basketball and Hockey compete. Track and Baseball compete. There is some football override with the winter sports, and winter overide with the spring sports. Track is popular among football players since many run to keep in shape for their primary sport.