Larry Holt gave everything he could over 34 years as a baseball umpire | ‘It was his life’
Umpiring baseball games was not simply a way for Larry Holt to pass the time. It provided him the opportunity to stay engaged with the sport for which he had a passion.
Beginning in 1992, the Butler resident was a regular behind the plate and on the bases for countless games in the Butler County area. He died last week at the age of 79.
“It was his life,” Holt’s daughter, Tina Shockey, said of him serving as an umpire. “This past summer, he worked 80 games. He did it for so long so that kids could enjoy the game he loved.”
After Shockey and her brother, Brian Holt, had grown into adulthood, Larry began his 34 years of dedication. He went on to serve as secretary of the Butler County Sports Officials Association and the county’s chapter of PIAA umpires.
“He spent so many hours working on the schedule, who would work each game, and Larry was very selfless,” said David Hall, president of both associations. “He would go up to Emlenton (Venango County) to work a game so that other umpires in Butler could stay in town. He was just a great guy.”
Holt’s efforts will have an impact on local baseball for years to come. Concerned with the decline in the number of umpires over the years, he began to recruit younger people and held clinics to help them learn the trade.
Troy Ritson, a 2025 Butler graduate and current business major at Slippery Rock University, was one of them.
“My dad coached and umpired baseball, so he knew Larry well,” he said. “I went to his clinic when I was 15 with eight or nine other kids. It was at the fields in Center Township. Larry showed us not only where to position ourselves to make calls, but also how to carry ourselves on the field. As an umpire, we needed to be a mediator, stay neutral.
“I became an umpire when I was 18 and have worked over 60 games.”
Holt was a graduate of Slippery Rock High School and Grove City College. He combined his knowledge of the game with an infectious attitude that helped “make umpiring enjoyable,” Ritson said. “He was a positive person who always had a smile on his face.”
Shockey recently was sorting through things in her father's basement and found “hundreds of dollars worth of umpire equipment,” she said. “He would take it around to games, and if somebody needed this or that, he would just give it to them.
“He was friendly and cared about people.”
While Holt’s time on the field has passed, his philosophy on how to treat others and how to show dedication to baseball is alive and well.
“I’m going to stick with it,” Ritson said of umpiring. “I have the opportunity to watch kids grow up and progress. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
