By Harold Raker
Like most professional athletes, at least those who never signed multi-million-dollar contracts, Alan Probst needed to find another career after his baseball playing days had ended.
After he left baseball in 2001, the former Jersey Shore High School and Mansfield University baseball star found himself living in Orlando, Fla., and supporting himself with an e-Bay business.
Probst, a 17th-round draft pick of the Houston Astros in 1992, never expected that his next career would allow him to earn a living while continuing his lifelong love affair with the outdoors.
A fourth-generation trapper, Probst, 39, had a chance meeting at a National Rifle Association convention that would change his life.
A chance meeting
The convention happened to be in Orlando in 2003.
"I went to the convention and it just renewed my zest for the outdoors and my passion. And after talking with some people, one guy was like you've got a pretty decent personality, you might want to think about doing some videos ...' and that's where it started," said Probst during a break at the recent Eastern Sports and Outdoor Show in Harrisburg.
Probst called his father, Charles, that night and said, "Dad, I'm coming home. I'm going to do trapping videos.' ''
His father asked him how he was going to make money doing that and he replied, "I don't know, but I'm going to do it."
And he did. He went home and started doing trapping videos and managed to get them placed in the area Gander Mountain store and other retailers, and it led into doing televisions shows.
In 60 million homes
Today, Probst, owner/operator of Alan Probst Inc., hosts All Outdoors with Alan Probst, which airs on the Pursuit Channel, the Sportsman Channel and Fox Sports Net-Pittsburgh. His father is also part of the show.
"We're going into our sixth year, we're in 60 million households," he said.
He also has produced Hlathini Safari's African Adventure Show, Bob Walker's Sportsman's Outdoor Strategy Show, which has aired on Versus the past two years, and a local program, "The Hunt Doctor,'' shown only in Pennsylvania.
He lives and produces his shows and videos in Bear Creek, near Scranton.
"I really have done nothing but immerse myself into this and I have a (3-year-old) son and a wife and my family's been very supportive of me, allowing me the time to do this," he said.
Two-part mission
Probst's mission is two-fold: to be able to earn a living for his family, and to promote the outdoors, specifically trapping, as a respectable and viable sport and method of controlling the animal population.
In that regard, Probst has his hands full trying to get his message out while those who oppose trapping and even hunting are doing their best to discredit him.
He looks forward to the day he can take his own son hunting with him -- if the sport is still available.
"It is a concern, and it has to do a lot with the hunters in general. The hunters are the ones that really need to work hard to keep it for the future generations," he said.
"And that's what I am trying to do with my trapping. Trapping is not a cruel sport, it's a kind sport," said Probst, who ran his first trap line at age 7.
"I don't look at things from an emotional standpoint. Yes, emotionally it's probably not very good for that fox or that coyote that we are taking out of the population. Yes, that animal is dying. But if you don't control the population for these animals, Mother Nature is going to take over, and (when) Mother Nature takes over, it is a lot crueler,'' he said.
"Whether it be through mange, rabies, distemper, these animals starve to death and that's just not conducive to a good environment," he said.
"I contend that the only way to protect against that is to actually use responsible harvest techniques, of which trapping is one.
"The first people to whine about a raccoon problem are the antis, who have them in their yard and they are killing their cats and killing their dogs." he said. "The coyotes come in and kill their pets and they are the first ones to want them killed. Well, that wouldn't have been a problem if they would have let the trappers do their job."
Population control
Probst believes trapping is the best way of controlling the population for the animals. "If I go into an area and I feel there are six to eight raccoons in the area, I'm only going to catch three or four of them and I'm pulling out, because I did my job there. I did what I needed to do. I gave myself some fur for my shed, I gave myself some quality time in the outdoors and I did a job for the raccoons so that the three or four that are left have the food that they need to sustain a healthy population."
Probst also battles those who say that trapping maims the animals.
"There is a big misconception with trapping that you are maiming the animals, that their feet are getting chewed off and breaking. That's just not the case. Why would someone who's trapping want to set a trap and then go back and not have the animal? It makes no sense. They are putting all their time and effort into catching these animals," he said.
New market for furs
Probst said that most of the fur today is not sold for fashion garments, which have also come under heavy protest in recent years. He said the majority goes to Russia and China where it is used to make hats, coats and gloves that are necessary for warmth.
The 1969 Jersey Shore graduate learned his trade from his father and his grandfather, but also studied biochemistry with a concentration in fishery science at Mansfield.
While playing professional baseball for the Astros and Mets, where he went as high as Class AAA, he took time every chance he got to return to Pennsylvania to trap, fish and hunt. He roomed in Norfolk with former New York Mets pitcher Mark Corey, who hailed from Coudersport and was a fellow hunter and fisherman.
Harder than you'd think
Today, his profession doesn't allow time for his own outdoor pleasures.
"People think you just take a camera out into the woods and you're going to have footage and that's just not the case. We spend weeks, months in the woods getting footage for 13 shows. It's just a lot harder than people tend to realize," he said.
"And that's the fun part, the easy part. The hard part comes when you have to sit down and edit it. You have to master digitize it and get into this channel's hands and that channel's hands. It's a full-time job and I'm kind of a one-man wrecking crew so I'm in that office sometimes 16 to 18 hours a day.
He acknowledged that the job leaves virtually no time for him to hunt, fish or trap. "Anybody that's in the TV industry is very seldom ever again going to go into the woods without a camera, because getting the footage that we get is so important.
He noted he made time once last year to go by himself and fish for native brook trout.
"I bought myself 50 worms, worked the barb off the hook and went out and caught about 25 to 30 native brookies and it was the most fun I've had in the outdoors for a long time," he said.
But he insisted that when his son is old enough, he will make time to take him into the outdoors.
"We'll have him out there, teaching him about the outdoors and hopefully instilling a zest for the outdoors for him to carry on through his life," he said.
n E-mail comments to hraker@dailyitem.com.
