Dick Doutt is more than just an umpire.

He directs umpire traffic — a painstakingly thankless job with long hours.

The Butler resident turns 63 this month and has served as the scheduler for the Butler County Sports Officials Association for the past several years.

“When I took over the scheduling duties six years ago, our association was umpiring 400 games a year,” Doutt said. “Now we're doing 2,200 games a year.”

And the number of umpires in the BCSOA has dwindled from 72 last year to 58 this year.

Other than taking a few years off to watch his daughter, Rachel, compete in volleyball and basketball at Butler High School, Doutt has been an umpire for 42 years.

“My claim to fame, I guess, is in all the years I've been scheduling umpires, there have always been two qualified umps showing up to work every game,” Doutt said.

“We've never missed that way. I'm pretty proud of that.”

He's steered a lot of umpires to a lot of places.

The BCSOA umpires Eagle County League games, the Butler County Area Baseball League, Tri-State Collegiate and Iron & Oil leagues at Pullman Park, the Butler Area Pony League and the Tri-County League, covering Butler, Mercer and Lawrence counties.

Larry Holt, 73, has been umpiring for 28 years. He serves as secretary of the association.

“Dick used to be president of the organization along with the scheduler,” Holt said. “He stepped down as president because he felt it was a conflict of interest.

“If someone has a problem with the scheduler, Dick felt that person should be able to go to the president with it. That's the kind of fair-minded person he is.”

During the baseball season, Doutt said he gets calls, emails or texts from people concerning umpiring issues from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. every day.

“One time, my wife and I were having dinner in Cranberry one night and I received a call from an umpire who wasn't going to wait because his scheduled game was going to start late,” Doutt said. “I had to take my dinner to go and get to Center Township to umpire that game that night.”

His schedule is plenty busy as it is. Doutt said he works six to 12 games a week. He is just coming off a stretch of working seven games in four days.

His umpiring days will end when the 2020 season does.

Doutt and his wife of 35 years, Andrea, are relocating to Myrtle Beach, S.C. Their daughter is a middle school math teacher and head volleyball coach at Conway High School there.

“I owe my wife a lot of time,” Doutt said. “She's put up with a lot. Most wives would have divorced their husbands if they had to go through what she's had to go through all these years.”

Doutt's void will definitely be felt around Butler County.

“Dick is the most vital member of our organization,” Holt said. “He runs the show. He's going to be so hard to replace. He is just an outstanding individual.”

A former Butler Pony and Prep League player, Doutt got into umpiring at age 20, through his father. Richard Doutt was president of Butler Area Baseball back then.

“We had six Pony League teams and eight Prep League teams,” Doutt said. “That's where I started umpiring. It just grew from there.

“To this day, everywhere I go around Butler, even if it was to volleyball and basketball games during the (baseball) offseason, people I know would approach me and want to talk baseball. That's what I'm going to miss the most.”

But Doutt believes in paying it forward. He admits to giving higher level games to younger umpires so they can get better through experience.

Doutt said umpiring mentors like Jake Benton and Joe Malis “took me under their wing” in the late 1970s.

“I walk away knowing that the 2020 season has the best group of young umpires I have been around in my 40-plus years,” he said. “I just hope whoever takes over keeps developing these guys.”

A few BCSOA umpires from last season either retired, are dealing with health issues or “just had enough,” Holt said.

“It's hard to get guys to stay with umpiring these days,” he added. “Fair or foul, ball or strike, out or safe ... You get yelled at quite a bit.

“That's why it's impressive to see a guy go as long as Dick Doutt. You just don't see guys like him around much anymore.”