Football season may have started, but Major League Baseball has some unfinished business.

No, I’m not talking about the World Series. I’m talking about the showdown between MLB and Nicktoons all-stars.

The lineups were voted on by the fans, and on Tuesday (September 13), the game will air on 2KPlayBall.com. 2KPlay’s Nicktoons MLB will hit the shelves the same day for XBox 360 (with Kinect support), Wii, and Nintendo DS.

Here are the lineups:

Nicktoons

Starting pitcher: Stimpy
Relief pitcher: Katara
Catcher: Ren
First Baseman: SpongeBob SquarePants
Second Baseman: Invader Zim
Third Baseman: Aang
Shortstop: Dudley Puppy
Left Fielder: Danny Phantom
Center Fielder: Kitty Katswell
Right Fielder: Patrick Star
Designated Hitter: Gaz

MLB

Starting pitcher: Roy Halladay
Relief pitcher: Brian Wilson
Catcher: Buster Posey
First Baseman: Albert Pujols
Second Baseman: Robinson Cano
Third Baseman: Alex Rodriguez
Shortstop: Jose Reyes
Left Fielder: Josh Hamilton
Center Fielder: Curtis Granderson
Right Fielder: Jose Bautista
Designated Hitter: David Ortiz

Licensing Book prediction: Nicktoons gets annihilated. Stimpy is an oaf and a cartoon cat. He’s pitching to professional baseball players. Come on. MLB 508, Nicktoons 0.

—Bryan Joiner

Last week, we tweeted a link to a Syracuse Post-Standard article, by Bob Niedt, about Old Navy’s new line of grammatically incorrect collegiate clothing. In the line released at 1,000 Old Navy stores, shirts read “Lets Go ‘Cuse” or “Lets Go Texas,” forgoing the apostrophe that should be included in let’s, as in let us go.

In a follow-up article, The Post-Standard printed a response from The Collegiate Licensing Co., the licensing division of IMG College, which partnered with Old Navy on the Superfan Nation collegiate merchandise. CLC’s spokeswoman, Tricia Hornsby, wrote to the newspaper that the participating schools had seen and approved the apparel designs. She added, “There are many designs on product, not just collegiate, that are not always grammatically correct. For example, go get ‘em, go git ‘em, sic ‘em, dawgs, etc.”

As an editor and Syracuse alumna, I’d refrain from purchasing a “Lets Go ‘Cuse” shirt. But I don’t follow sports or collect sports merchandise. Would incorrect grammar deter sports fans from buying the shirts?

To be on the safe side, Old Navy has pulled the shirts from its online store, which says the tees have been taken into temporary custody by the grammar police and that it will release corrected versions soon.

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

Five years ago today, I began working for The Licensing Book.

I was 28 years old, which I mention so you can carbon-date my current age, and work backward to verify the following statement: When I was growing up, the New England Patriots simply weren’t very good.

That’s not quite true. They were awful. They were putrid.

I loved football and I loved the Patriots, despite their lack of football skills. But to survive the long winter, it was not uncommon to adopt another football team or player as one’s own, with the unspoken assumption that this team or player would have football skills. I latched onto the Dallas Cowboys. (I was young.) My brother, sensibly, adopted Barry Sanders, the Detroit Lions running back who was something out of a magic show. Over time, I’ve come to appreciate that choice more than my own.

Last Wednesday, I found myself within 20 feet of Barry Sanders for Madden 12′s kickoff event in Bryant Park. It wasn’t just me who was in awe: Most of the other former NFL players there—including Dan Marino, Jerry Rice, Kurt Warner, Deion Sanders, and Michael Strahan—gave Barry a wide berth. He’s the one who walked away at the top of his game, with nothing to prove. He’s the one for whom a meaningless exhibition game was actually meaningless, and not a testing ground for how sharp one remained in football shape.

It obviously was for Marino, Warner, et al., and it was just tremendous to see, as a fan. These were the players I grew up watching, still obscenely talented, showing off to one another. Marino threw passes before the game to a variety of players and actors (who made up half of each squad), pinpointing his throws with, well, Dan Marino-like efficiency. Whenever Jerry Rice stepped into his place in the queue and took off down the field, Marino threw it a little harder, a little lower, a little sharper—enough to be noticeable. As you might expect from the (possible) best quarterback of all time throwing to the (rarely disputed) best receiver of all time. Just not where you might expect it, in the New York Public Library’s backyard.

(My photos are embargoed. This is where they played the game.)

The event, which was filmed, will air on NBC before the August 28 preseason game between the Oakland Raiders and the New Orleans Saints. You’ll probably see me when Jerry Rice gets his (spoiler alert!) first touchdown catch. He almost runs me over. I’m the guy in the purple long-sleeved shirt. With the wide eyes.

—Bryan Joiner

Comic-Con International has brought franchises including Voltron, Captain America, and Star Trek, to the estimated 125,000 comic fans gathered in San Diego July 21-24, while toymakers have embraced the opportunity to funnel exclusive licensed merchandise to collectors.

Toy companies like Mattel and Hasbro offer exclusive merchandise presented in unique packaging that committed collectors would appreciate, according to Gregory Schmidt’s New York Times article about toymakers at Comic-Con. “Packaging is not just something to hold the figure,” said Frank Varela, an art director for Mattel, in the article. “Packaging enhances the experience of having the toy. It harkens to nostalgia for the fan boys.”

Along with Swamp Thing and Voltron toys, Mattel comes to Comic-Con with a 20-inch replica of the Stay-Puft Marshamallow Man from Ghostbusters, with a city diorama and packaged inside a box resembling a suitcase. Mattel also brings two Hot Wheels vehicles, including the DeLorean from Back to the Future with a movie diorama.

Hasbro brings a Star Wars set that includes 12 action figures in a box designed to look like the Death Star. The company will also display Ultimate Optimus Prime, Marvel Universe Sentinel, Transformers, G.I. Joe, My Little Pony, and the new Kre-O brand, which is making its Comic-Con debut with 12 building sets featuring Transformers characters.

Despite the current temperatures this week (96º in NYC), Comic-Con isn’t always so hot for film studios.

Comic-Con attendees can generate negative buzz that hurts a film, said Tim Palen, Lionsgate’s president for theatrical marketing, in an AdAge.com article by Andrew Hampp.

“If the fans don’t think something is cool, they will let you know—instantly, and passionately,” Palen told Ad Age. “So if you come to Comic-Con, you’d better have the goods, because there are other opportunities to launch, and it’s very hard to recover from bad Comic-Con buzz.”

Mid-sized studios Lionsgate and Relativity Media are presenting at least four movies each, showing screenings or selected content from their upcoming releases, while Warner Bros., Disney, and DreamWorks stayed home this year.

Relativity announced at Comic-Con that it has optioned the feature film rights for Voltron from World Event Productions. The studio will adapt the live-action big screen version from the 1984 animated series Voltron: Defender of the Universe. Comic-Con is big for Voltron this year, as the franchise made it Comic-Con panel debut Thursday with a presentation of new and classic Voltron content.

Dissenting from the worry of other big studios, Sony has a panel for 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man movie and is advertising the Ghost Rider sequel. Comic-Con also scored participation from Summit Entertainment with a panel for The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn, Universal with a Cowboys and Aliens premiere, and Paramount with a Captain America: The First Avenger screening and a panel for The Adventures of Tintin. Audience members of Captain America will receive RealD 3D Collector’s custom red, white, and blue Captain America glasses, a limited-edition poster, and a grand prize package of Captain America merchandise and other Marvel items given away to an audience member at each screening.

Television properties have a presence at Comic-Con as well. Nickelodeon, Toynami, and vinyl toy brand Unkl partnered to create co-branded SpongeBob SquarePants urban vinyl toys, modeled after Unkl’s UniPo figures, available this fall. Toynami unveiled working prototypes of the first wave of figures at Comic-Con, which will include SpongeBob SquarePants, Patrick, Squidward, Mr. Krabs, and The Flying Dutchman. Nickelodeon Consumer Products also unveiled a new lineup of toys from Jazwares for Fanboy and Chum Chum, available in August from Toys “R” Us.

CBS has come to the convention with exclusive sneak peeks, signings, and limited-edition products based on its television brands, including Star Trek, CSI, NCIS, Dexter, Charmed, Cheers, and The Twilight Zone. Since these TV properties have been long-established and don’t face the same need movies have to garner buzz and then box office sales, TV shows seem to cater to the collector in a similar way as the toy companies. CBS attends Comic-Con to reach its audience directly, said Liz Kalodner, executive vice president and general manager of CBS Consumer Products. “By offering these exclusive items we can reward our greatest fans with products that can’t be found anywhere else.”

—Melissa Tinklepaugh

Walmart Will Share Sales Data

Big news from the retail front, where Walmart has agreed to share sales data with research organizations through Nielson & Co.

Walmart previously kept sales data to itself, leading research firms to use consumer panel data and advanced modeling to estimate the mega-retailer’s packaged-good sales totals.

Nielsen’s Niffer Frighetto told Advertising Age‘s Jack Neff that sales data will be available in a “few months,” and that the data will cover sales from U.S. Walmart stores, Neighborhood Markets, and Sam’s Club, and will include some historical data.

NHL Announces A Good Number of Deals

The National Hockey League, of which the Boston Bruins are champions, announced 23 new licensees at its annual licensing and trade show Wednesday and Thursday.

New licensees include A&E Group for outerwear; Coveroo for cell phone covers; and Levelwear for apparel and outerwear in Canada. Franklin Sports also signed a renewal agreement for its two-decade partnership to create NHL Street Hockey Gear.

Did we mention that the Bruins won the Stanley Cup?

—Bryan Joiner

Comic-Con kicks off today in San Diego. It’s kind of a big deal. We’ll have full coverage tomorrow, but until then here’s a New York Times article by Gregory Schmidt about how toymakers including Mattel and Hasbro are using the convention as a launching pad for new and limited-edition toys.

The big news from yesterday was Disney signing a deal with the National Hockey League for co-branded Phineas and Ferb merchandise for the 2011-12 season. We and others have talked about how Disney is actively using Phineas and Ferb to make inroads into the boys 6-11 market. We’ve also talked about how sports labor issues in the NFL (though that seems on its way to a resolution) and NBA might affect licensed product sales, but we haven’t talked about how it could affect deals and dealmaking. If there’s no NBA season next year, which seems like a real possibility, the value of Disney’s deal with the NHL would increase—perhaps not dramatically, but increased nonetheless. Sports-hungry eyeballs have to go somewhere when football isn’t on.

Warner Bros. announced that it has teamed with Lego to create Lego DC Universe Super Heroes. Lego has access to the entire library of DC Comics characters (including Batman, Robin, Catwoman, The Joker, The Riddler, and more) and stories. And not to step on our Comic-Con coverage, but 3,000 exclusive Batman and Green Lantern minifigures will be distributed to kick off a five-month promotion for the launch.

Finally, big news from WME Licensing, where The Little Prince has been sold as an animated series with 54 half-hour episodes in more than 72 countries, with a motion picture now in development. Licensing for the classic storytime book and the animation series is now underway, and interested parties should contact Rob Stone, president of WME Licensing, at rstone@wmeentertainment.com.

—Bryan Joiner

This story came through via the (excellent) LIMA Smartbrief on Thursday, but we’re just getting to it now: Crain’s New York reports that area retailers could lose up to $5.5 million in licensed merchandise sales if the NFL and NBA lockouts persist.

Foot Locker and adidas are the most vulnerable parties, according to the report, due to their licensing relationships with the leagues. Other retailers might take a small hit, but could possibly recoup the losses with sales of generic or NCAA-branded merchandise, according to the article.

It is this blog’s position that there is no good reason that the sports leagues can’t solve their problems in time to play, given that sports owners are orchestrating the lockouts in both cases. The day this blog believes that sports owners are losing money hand over fist, it will eat an officially licensed cap.

—Bryan Joiner

Barring an A-Rod like hiccup, Derek Jeter will break the 3,000 hit barrier this weekend, becoming the first New York Yankee to do so. Even Boston Red Sox fans—people who have crowed for years that Jeter is overrated—have to admit that this is pretty impressive. (One of them is writing this blog entry.) Jeter’s agent, Casey Close, certainly thinks so, and is looking to put the kibosh on guerilla-marketed 3,000 hits gear, according to Cynopsis Sports, which reports that organizations outside of Jeter-affiliated brands including Gillette, Nike’s Jordan, and Gatorade, “may not run ads with Jeter’s image, name, the number 3,000, or the word ‘captain’” in the wake of the likely achievement.

Yankees-Steiner will offer bats, balls, hats, photos, game bases, photo collections and everything else from Jeter’s career, reports USA Today, with sales expected in the millions. Despite his relatively advanced age and declining stats, Jeter’s had the No. 1 selling jersey in all of baseball last year. It’s a testament to his Hall of Fame career and his ability to build a fairly scandal-free sports brand in the country’s biggest market, and on a team full of superstars.

The Yankees knew what they were getting into at the outset of Jeter’s career. They don’t hand out single-digit numbers to just anyone, with every available but 2 and 6 having been retired. (In the case of 8, it was retired twice.) Just as the Yankees hoped, Jeter will take 2 out of circulation, and will be remembered by fans the way many remember Joe DiMaggio—as the understated, undisputed leader-by-example of the Yankees. As a point of comparison, Jeter would have had more hits than DiMaggio even if Joltin’ Joe hadn’t spent three years in the war.

So yeah: he’s good. Just make sure you’ve got your bases covered before you try to capitalize on it.

—Bryan Joiner, Boston native

On Friday, we met with the CEO of FunGoPlay, Steve Lerner, in The Licensing Book offices. FunGoPlay is a delightfully simple concept designed to get kids active: it’s an online game for which you can get points by playing actual, outdoor sports with special FunGoPlay equipment that track the time you’ve been playing. The more you play, say, soccer, the more points you earn, and the more fun you can have in the FunGoPlay online world for when the sun goes down or you’re just plain pooped.

FunGoPlay will be fully launched in mid-July, but they’ve already signed a major partner in Sports Illustrated for Kids, which will provide videos for the FunGoPlayTV website. The partnership will begin in July with additional content appearing in early August, and visitors to FunGoPlay will receive SI Kids Real World Sports content in the FunGoPlay newsletter. SI for Kids Managing Editor Bob Der says FunGoPlay “provides an amazing digital platform to engage sports fans on a very different level.”

FunGoPlay seems ahead of the curve here. Tracking usage of sporting equipment is only a start (we have to imagine adults will be able to do this sooner or later), and adding it to an online game is an inspired combo. We’ll have more news from FunGoPlay as it’s available, which we have to imagine is quite soon.

—Bryan Joiner

If you were born in Boston, like I was, last night was not a good night to be a sports fan. Not only did the Red Sox get rocked (Lackey!), the Celtics lost their second-round NBA series to the Miami Heat.

We’re inclined to eat away our troubles with some of New York’s famous pizza. Of course, people in Miami, or Celtics-haters, might be celebrating with a pizza party. If they are, Pizza Prints can help them celebrate in style with an officially-licensed Heat pizza print for their pie.

It makes us sad, but we are not sore losers. Fair is fair.

—Bryan Joiner

Over at ali.com, you can rank the potential tokens for USAopoly’s forthcoming Muhammad Ali Monopoly game. So we did.

The rankings ranged from 10 (highest preference) to 1 (lowest preference) for 10 contenders: a set of boxing gloves, a pair of boxing trunks, a butterfly, a bee, a championship belt, a silhouette of the champ, the Muhammad Ali autograph, a boxing shoe, a speedbag, and a ring bell. Here are our choices, with our reasons.

10/9: Butterfly and bee. We ranked the butterfly ahead of the bee, but the important part is that these are the top two. If you’re making a game specific to Muhammad Ali, these are the single two most important things to include. They’re the most fun, and the most likely to promote storytelling (Why is there a bee, daddy?), and repeat plays (I want to play the butterfly game!).

If these are not in the game, we will eat a bee pie, stingers and all.

8: Championship belt. Who doesn’t want to be the championship belt? You’ve won before the game even started. That’s a strong selling point, and reinforces that Ali was, you know, the champ. Good to remember in a game bearing his likeness.

7: Bell. We will not play regular Monopoly if we are not given the Iron, so we’re suckers for kitschy, slightly offbeat tokens. It’s just fun in a way that’s not Ali-specific — but make every single aspect of the game Ali-specific, and you’ll risk alienating people who could use it to learn about the greatest. (Editorial note: he was, and still is, the greatest.)

6: Gloves. Since you literally couldn’t make a boxing game without a boxing gloves token, we’re going with this one here. Someone will say “I want to be the boxing gloves!” before you even open the game.

5: Boxing shoe. Nice continuity from the original Monopoly game with this one. It’ll getyou pulling down the old game and comparing the two, and maybe even playing that one again too. Savvy.

4: Speedbag. A nice idea, but it’s kind of hard to tell what it is. You want the pieces to be self-explanatory.

3: Boxing trunks. These made me think of sweat. I don’t like thinking of sweat.

2: Champ statue. A big gratuitous, but the big problem is that it’s not identifiably Ali the way, say, a Michael Jordan logo would obviously be Michael Jordan. Many people would probably think it’s Rocky. In an Ali-branded game, that would seem to be a mistake.

1: Autograph signature. A decent idea, but far too gratuitous in the company of clever ideas like the ones above. No one would choose this piece, ever. Or at least no one we’d like to play with, or be afraid of losing to.

Disagree? You can assign your own rankings. That’s the great part. (We’re pretty confident in ours, though, and would post photos of all of them if formatting wasn’t such a hassle.) Happy Friday!