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Little League World Series berth
By Steve DelVecchio August 27, 2012 - Posted in Everything Else


Playing for a berth in the Little League World Series is a once in a lifetime opportunity. Parents know how rare the chance is for their children, and many of them go to great lengths to make sure they don’t miss a moment of the action. However, few have to make the same sacrifice that Billie Ann Tomei has made.

According to the Press Democrat (via CBS San Francisco), Billie Ann is the mother of Cole and wife of Petaluma National all-stars coach Trevor Tomei. She is an office manager for a CPA, and when she asked her boss if she could take time off to travel to the West Regional tournament in San Bernardino he was not very understanding.

“(My boss) wouldn’t let me take time off,” Tomei explained. “He told me, ‘If you go, write yourself your last check.’ So I wrote myself my last check.”

Parents have to juggle a number of issues when traveling with their son’s teams — including travel arrangements and leaving other children at home who are in school — but the fact that a mother had to make that type of decision just to watch her son compete is pretty disappointing.

Petaluma went on to lose to Tennessee in the U.S. Championship game, but I would imagine Tomei does not regret her decision. Special moments at the Little League World Series like this one are not something you want to miss out on as a parent. Losing her job to witness a once in a lifetime opportunity for her son is likely a decision Tomei is at peace with.
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In 2005 the Hawaii manager quit his job. They wouldn't let him take a month leave of absence. I could see where a month could be an issue. Since this woman is an office assistant I'll bet she's offered a job somewhere by someone sympathetic to the situation.
Last edited by RJM
If she flew her elderly mother aross country and then turned around and flew back only to pay a cab driver $450 to drive from Philly (and owes him 150 more) to see the last inning of one game-- then she doesn't have financial problems I would worry over. It was her choice and I'm sure she can live by it. Her husband was a coach so her son certainly wasn't alone. Personally, my husband and I rarely both attended out of town tournaments when our other son was home. The tournament she was fired over was the regional-- not the World Series. Why did she need to be there the entire 11 days of a regional tournament?
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The coach of the 99 LLWS team from Phenix City, Tony Rasmus - father of Cory and Colby Rasmus, was fired from a private school.


And he's been a royal pain ever since!

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If it was vacation then it would be a cr@p move for him to not reschedule his vacation. If it was a legit business reason then he was probably correct in his stance.


Maybe his vacation couldn't be rescheduled. What makes her vacation more important than his?
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Originally posted by smalltownmom:
If she flew her elderly mother aross country and then turned around and flew back only to pay a cab driver $450 to drive from Philly (and owes him 150 more) to see the last inning of one game-- then she doesn't have financial problems I would worry over. It was her choice and I'm sure she can live by it. Her husband was a coach so her son certainly wasn't alone. Personally, my husband and I rarely both attended out of town tournaments when our other son was home. The tournament she was fired over was the regional-- not the World Series. Why did she need to be there the entire 11 days of a regional tournament?


It's a chance of a lifetime and they might have lost and not gone any further.
I guess I didn't make myself clear. For regional you're talking about a 7 1/2 car drive or 1 hour flight. She had enough $ to take 2 round trip flights across country in less than 1 week. If she wanted to work a few days during regionals she could have taken a 1 hour flight or driven 7 1/2 hours a few times. She's proven she can do it. It's all her choice and I agree it's a great experience and opportunity. I would argue it's not a PR article that will get that much empathy from that many people. That's all.
As far as I am concerned, every game, every tournament is a once in a lifetime experience, some more special than others, obviously. My husband and I have had to miss plenty of those times, either both of us missed it or we missed it together for both of our kids. But we always made sure if one wasn't there the other was, as was in this situation. We have missed regional games when son was in college.

I don't feel badly for her, I agree with smalltownmom, she seemed capable of making things work, but she made a choice.
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Originally posted by smalltownmom:
I guess I didn't make myself clear. For regional you're talking about a 7 1/2 car drive or 1 hour flight. She had enough $ to take 2 round trip flights across country in less than 1 week. If she wanted to work a few days during regionals she could have taken a 1 hour flight or driven 7 1/2 hours a few times. She's proven she can do it. It's all her choice and I agree it's a great experience and opportunity. I would argue it's not a PR article that will get that much empathy from that many people. That's all.


I don't disagree with you, she made her choice.
So basically....

LL baseball game vs. job

For the person that would choose the LL game, I'd have to consider the parent overly involved in juniors life and lacking the requisite judgement regarding prioritizing lifes lessons by leading by example.

But hey, what do I know, I'm just some working stiff that always needed his job.
As a small business owner, I've been fortunate to have the flexibility to attend the majority of my kids events over the years. I'm sure that I've sacrificed plenty of potential income over those years, but it was worth it.

As for the Little League Mom that was fired, we don't know the entire story, therefore it's difficult to form an opinion, but I'll take a shot. How long had she worked for the CPA? She apparently had some vacation time available, so she likely had been with him for awhile. She was the Office Manager, but was there any other employees available to pick up the slack? The CPA was apparently out of the office during this time frame and needed her there to run things. Was he attending a business function or was he on his own family vacation? Who really knows? After reading the article and learning that LL-Mom watched 11 days of baseball at the West Regional in San Bernardino, and then was able to make two trips back & forth to Pennsylvania that included a very expensive Taxi Cab ride from the airport, I don't feel sorry for her.

I have three employees, including my wife (yes ladies, she's my partner...but she is on the payroll! Wink) and I'd be more than happy to work with them if a family situation like this arises. If I can make it work, I will. I understand the importance, and I realize these opportunities don't come very often. With that said, I have a small business. If I'm out of the office and I NEED YOU there to help run things, well, we have a decision to make...and hopefully we can meet half way. If not, good luck to you. Don't forget there's two sides to this story, and now the CPA has to find someone to manage his/her office and more than likely spend weeks/months re-training.

Congratulations to the Northern California (Petaluma) team for making it to the US Little League Championship game. I loved their never say die attitude, and I enjoyed listening to their coach interact with the players...very classy. Best of luck to the LL-Mom in her job search, I wouldn't be surprised if she already has a job lined up.
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Originally posted by Bulldog 19:
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Technically she abandoned her job for which you are not allowed to collect unemployment in CA.


I was kinda thinking the same thing just now. She wasn't really "fired." She was given a choice and she chose to quit.


I doubt it based on my experience with California labor law. Almost always sides with employee. Here she "asked for time off" and the employers answer was "you take it you're fired".
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Originally posted by Tx-Husker:
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Originally posted by Bulldog 19:
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Technically she abandoned her job for which you are not allowed to collect unemployment in CA.


I was kinda thinking the same thing just now. She wasn't really "fired." She was given a choice and she chose to quit.


I doubt it based on my experience with California labor law. Almost always sides with employee. Here she "asked for time off" and the employers answer was "you take it you're fired".


Sad, isn't it? It's quite common here in Illinois also for employees to win nearly all of their unemployment hearings, regardless of circumstances.
I had an employee that had given me her two week notice (approximately 8-10 years ago?). She had found a job that in her mind would be less stressful, but would allow for the same flexibility I had afforded her in regards to working around her college workload. I accepted her resignation, and after careful consideration, informed her that I didn't need the two weeks and cut her a check through the remainder of the week. I didn't want an unhappy employee working in my office. One month later I received a notice from the EDD (Employee Development Department) that the said employee was seeking unemployment insurance, unpaid vacation time, and the additional week of pay she did not receive. To make a long story short, we ended up agreeing to let an arbitrator settle the issue. I ended up owing the additional week of pay, and we met in the middle for the allotted unused vacation pay. She QUIT, so she did not receive unemployment insurance.

What did I learn? Document Everything. Maintain an employee manual, it's just as important for small businesses. This young lady was like a member of our family. She watched our kids, even stayed with them during weekends on several occasions at our home. Since then, my wife and I have maintained more of a professional atmosphere in our office with our employees. We still have fun, but as CollegeParentNoMore stated earlier, we know that the employee will be given the benefit of the doubt in California a large percentage of the time, so we're careful. In fact, next month will be the first time my office manager will be out with me and my wife outside of a work function. We're taking her and her significant other to a Padres game and then out on the town in the Gaslamp District of San Diego. It should be fun, and it's sad that this is the first time she's hanging out with us outside the office in the nearly six years she's worked for me.

After that quick little bsbl247 LIFE STORY, back to Little League Mom....as I said in an earlier post, best of luck to her, and I'm sure she already has another office job lined up.
Last edited by bsbl247
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In fact, next month will be the first time my office manager will be out with me and my wife outside of a work function. We're taking her and her significant other to a Padres game and then out on the town in the Gaslamp District of San Diego


I hope you don't end up paying her double time for attending a gameSmile You laugh becuase you know its a posibility if she's not a "professional". We had a client send a non-professinal staff persion to HA for fun and training. They had to pay her travel time mostly at OT rates..... I am pretty sure they'll never do that again.
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Originally posted by joes87:
A little more to the story. Apparently her boss was not in the office and she needed to cover for him. It does not explain why he was not in the office. If it was vacation then it would be a cr@p move for him to not reschedule his vacation. If it was a legit business reason then he was probably correct in his stance.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/a.../COMMUNITY/120829823


As mentioned we don't know the entire story, but I will say this. Just because you may have XX hours or weeks of vacation built up doesn't mean you always get to take it when you want to - especially if one is classified or considered to be an "essential" employee. Many times I have had to schedule my vacation around coworker's scheduled time off or the bosses scheduled vacation.

This past year was my son's senior year and I made the decision I was not missing one game. So in February I talked with my boss (schedule in hand) and worked it out - I basically took the day off for away games and left a little early for home games. He knew it was his last year and was very gracious in working with me. Even when the playoffs hit and the season could end at any moment, as long as I gave him as much notice as possible, he was cool with it. I was fortunate the neither he nor my coworker had requested any time off during that time.

It wasn't like she was fired. She made her choice.
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Originally posted by CollegeParentNoMore:
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In fact, next month will be the first time my office manager will be out with me and my wife outside of a work function. We're taking her and her significant other to a Padres game and then out on the town in the Gaslamp District of San Diego


I hope you don't end up paying her double time for attending a gameSmile You laugh becuase you know its a posibility if she's not a "professional". We had a client send a non-professinal staff persion to HA for fun and training. They had to pay her travel time mostly at OT rates..... I am pretty sure they'll never do that again.


Yes...I'm laughing, because I know that unfortunately that crazy stuff happens!

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