Following a season of silence, the lathes and lines at Baum Bat are humming again. The Traverse City workshop is back to producing wood-composite baseball bats used by players worldwide.

“It’s a legendary brand that has a lot of history in baseball,” says new owner Ben Boulware. “It’s very important to me to keep that intact and to keep that alive.”

Founded in 1991 in Traverse City, Baum Bats was formerly owned by Steve Baum. However, when Baum fell ill last year he began looking to pass the enterprise to a new team.

Boulware became aware of the opportunity after his son kept breaking lesser bats.

“I spent a couple hundred dollars in a weekend just on two bats that lasted three swings,” says Boulware. After discovering Baum Bats but finding the company no longer in operation, Boulware put in a bid to buy it.

“A lot of bigger companies wanted it, but Steve wanted to give it to the small guy,” says Boulware.

While he might be “the little guy” compared to large manufacturers, Boulware is hardly an unknown in the baseball world. A former Chicago White Sox player, he now owns baseballcamps.com and collegebaseballcamps.com., two of the largest baseball camp companies in the country.

“That’s all I do, I’m a baseball guy,” says Boulware. “This was obviously a pretty easy pitch. I’ve always been an entrepreneur and this is right up my line of expertise.”

Baum passed away early this year, but not before finalizing the handover to Boulware.

Now the workshop is run by Dave Smart, a life-long baseball coach and friend of Boulware. Smart and ten full-time employees -- including Baum’s daughter Christy -- are working hard to meet the backed up demand for their products.

Smart and Boulware describe the bats as having a “cult following,” and speak to their continued popularity in the U.S. and abroad....though they decline to explain exactly what makes them so tough. Boulware does, however, hint at their makeup. 

“We’re taking components that are built for military and boats and we’re incorporating them into making a bat,” he says. “So obviously it becomes very strong."

“[The bats are] 95 percent the way Steve made them,” says Boulware. “The magic formula is still not touched."

He adds that the company is now considering expanding production and ultimately selling the bats in retail stores.

The new owner likens his vision for the future of Baum Bats to Comiskey Park, the home of the White Sox.

“You’re going to mesh old with new,” Boulware says. “We’re taking an old stadium and keeping the essence and core of it, and giving it a new flare and style while maintaining the legacy and integrity.”