“Pinball” Clemons understands the importance of farmers and what they produce.

CropConnect 2019 brought together an array of speakers, exhibitors, and of course farmer-producers of the most vital commodity on this earth – food. Held Feb 13 and 14 at the Victoria In Convention Centre, an excellent venue, including practical space, excellent acoustics, even better service and food, and of course abundant free parking, within easy walking distance of the convention centre.
The venue of speakers and breakout sessions including great speakers, great topics, great discussions, and thought-provoking, covered so many excellent and timely issues.
I’m one who doesn’t sit through too much of programs like this, been there done that. So I pick and choose the ones I want to focus and interview.
My first speaker, I decided to highlight, and interview, Michael “Pinball” Clemons, a Canadian Football League legend and an icon of sporting excellence, community leadership, and personal integrity. With boundless energy and moments of quiet introspection, he talks about teamwork and the potential each of us has to achieve anything we set our minds to. Good-natured and unabashedly emotional, he shows you how to put your heart into everything you do.
I thought I’d missed it by coming in around mid-morning and his slot on the program at 9:00 am Wednesday. No such fate. Often at such meetings, I sat down in the auditorium away from the crowd, apart from the people, and this time it was no exception. I picked up my buffet lunch and walked to the back corner and sat down by myself. Then, Bob Anderson, a farm and oat grower came to join me and perfectly fitting, he too has lost his wife so we can compare notes. Then at 1:00 pm we hear this shriek and this image on the screen of Pinball and I’m thinking it is a rerun of his morning presentation – no such thing. With his flight delayed from down east due to another winter storm, he came late and spoke at 1:00 pm. For the next 50 minutes, ‘Pinball’ Clemons the second-winningest coach for the Toronto Argonauts had the farmers and other attendees on their feet at least four times, clapping, hooting and hollering about the most critical industry in the world, that of producing food. When finally finished, I sauntered to the front after taking dozens of pictures of Pinball in action and shook his hand just after he sat down. You see, Pinball walks the talk and talks the walk. He may not know much about farming or agriculture for that matter, but he understands as well as anyone the importance of producing food. He gave me a short interview, but it wasn’t the length nor the message that struck me, although it was great. When I turned on my iPhone recorder, Mr. Clemons put his hands on my shoulders one on either side, looked me in the eye and boldly but quietly answered my two questions. It did two things, it showed his focus, and secondly, it showed that for those brief moments that interview with me matter because it kept all the other reporters, wannabe questioners, and well-wishers at bay.
Harry: Your message to farmers, you speak to a lot of audiences, you’ve hit a lot of guys, so what’s your main message to this crowd here today?
Pinball: My main message is the number of hits I took, right, the number of yards I ran, pale in comparison to their [meaning the farmers] commitment to community and what they do. They support families in a way that nothing else can. When you don’t have food, nothing else matters! So the diligence it takes on the farm, the discipline, day after day. There’s no such thing as a weekend and so on and so on, and indeed the example that they make as families I think is … we think of it as an old trade or occupation, but it’s not that. It is a way of life and maybe the best way of life on the planet.
Wow, of course, he said much more during his presentation highlighting the farmers and their families as the salt of the earth.
Harry: So in your life, what’s your most important goal?
Pinball: “Well, my most important goal is to love God and the way I manifest that by loving people and so it starts with my wife and my girls and then it moves on from there. So we do want to try to empower those who are marginalized, so young people who don’t have the opportunity, who are in foster care or a shelter or a marginalized community, so that’s what we think is valuable. •