Two months without a state budget? The pikers. Talk about playing real hardball: In 1994, the country went 232 days without baseball because owners and players were about as far apart on a deal as the Dems and Reeps in Sacramento.

At an April meeting with Valley hospital administrators, an already-frustrated Assembly Minority Leader Mike Villines said the only way to get a budget that addresses the multi-billion-dollar deficit might involve hospitals ceasing services for a few days and hanging a "closed" sign outside.

Some are pretty close, Mike. The California Hospital Association reports that one hospital is temporarily staying afloat thanks to a personal loan from a rancher. Current thinking is that some facilities that the state stopped paying in July or August won't be able to make payroll for the entire month of September.

Where do you go for stopgap funding? Steve Walter, chief financial officer for Community Medical Centers, says if a business has the credit worthiness, they could/should have a line of credit with their bank to smooth out the accounts receivable fluctuations. Credit is more expensive the poorer the institution is.

Let's not forget this isn't like a power outage where you throw out the spoiled food and reopen shop when you've cleaned up. Day-care centers and other care facilities that close because the owner has used up her savings and double-mortgaged the house -- if they want to reopen -- often have to go through re-licensing, recertification, another round of police background checks.  Just how often do you want to do this? At least once a year given how the state budget dysfunctions.

Turning another corner on baseball and politics, the average salary this year for a Major League Baseball player is a shade under $3 million.  The average amount that the state owes to Community Medical Centers each week for Medi-Cal services it provides is a bit more than $3 million.  So, as lawmakers continue to throw beanballs at each other, the state is in arrears to Community at the moment to the tune of $15-plus million -- the equivalent of five-plus pro ballplayers.

Way things are headed, we'll have a team pretty soon.