* Tim Lemke blogs about today's Sports and Entertainment Commission meeting, including that the ballpark "punch list" is down to about 11,000 items from the original 27,600, though there's only 15 "top priority" and 200 "high priority items." Also, the Nats haven't yet started paying their rent, because they say the DCSEC still owes them some required actions. (But once those actions are completed, the Nats will owe all rent from Opening Day onward.)

* From a few days ago, a press release touting the Sports Commission's "purchase of 14,600,706 kWh of renewable energy credits (RECs)," offsetting 70 percent of the electricity use at the LEED Silver-certified ballpark.

* Yahoo gnashes its teeth over attendance. And a bad review of the ballpark comes in from Johnstown, PA. (h/t BPG)

* One of the biggies of Nats blogging is calling it quits--Chris Needham of Capitol Punishment. Great run, Chris, sorry to see you go. My site stats will suffer greatly from the loss of your coveted What to Read Today links.

* Metro is needing to do replace a switch at Mt. Vernon Square, necessitating four weekends worth of major delays on the Yellow and Green lines, starting this weekend and going through June 8. Here's Metro's press release detailing how service will be impacted, and how they will attempt to handle the crowds at Nationals Park during the May 10 and 11 and June 7 and 8 home games: "People attending these games should add more time into their schedules if riding or connecting to the Yellow and Green Line as there will be longer waits for trains before and after the games." This quote from WMATA in today's Post story is a little more stark: "If fans 'leave the stadium and keep walking straight to Half Street [the Navy Yard station entrance closest to the stadium], there will be such a backup that they won't be able to walk around the crowd.' " Fans are being told to build in 30 to 45 minutes into their trips.

There will be special shuttle trains between Navy Yard and L'Enfant Plaza, along with shuttle buses starting at the end of the seventh inning that will run between Navy Yard and Federal Center SW. Plus, the N22 shuttle from New Jersey and M to Eastern Market and Union Station will run every five minutes. Read the press release for further details; here's Dr. Gridlock, too.

I've been waiting a loooooong time for this particular set of before-and-afters. With thanks both to Mother Nature for the beautiful day (after a rainout last Thursday) and to the Nationals for indulging me, I now have a set of before-and-afters for the old intersection of Half and O streets, SE. And, as you can see from above, it's a little different.

The intersection died almost exactly two years ago, replaced now by second base and shallow centerfield. I cannot vouch for 1000-percent matches between the old and new angles (I didn't bring a GPS with me to pinpoint my positions, and ground level is now about 15-20 feet below where it was in 2006), but I think it's close enough for you to get the idea. The two shots above are (top) looking north and (bottom) looking west, with the old black Ziegfield's building visible in both "before" shots. But you can see all of the angles (in bigger images) here.

UPDATE: And, since the archive photos are kind of small, here's some larger images of the view from around second base. I'll figure out how to add them into my official ballpark galleries later....