Julia Ruth Stevens isn't surprised when the large check arrives in her mailbox every month. For the past 20 years, members of Babe Ruth's family have been reaping millions from companies who pay a royalty fee for the use of his name or image.

"If daddy saw what was being done with his name, he wouldn't believe it," said Stevens, 85, who was 31 when her father passed away. "He's bigger today than he was when he was alive."

"The Sultan of Swat" is one of many greats who has posthumously earned a healthy payday. His family has collected more in royalties in some months than his largest yearly salary -- $80,000 in 1930 and 1931.

Taking candy from the Babe

The Ruth family does not earn any licensing fees from Baby Ruth candy bar sales. When the bar hit the market in 1921, Curtiss Candy Company said it was named after former president Grover Cleveland daughter Ruth. But the timing of the bar's launch -- after Babe Ruth's first season with the Yankees and 17 years after Ruth Cleveland's death -- didn't exactly lend credibility to the candy company's claims. Ruth demanded to be compensated and then tried to patent the Babe Ruth's Home Run Candy, but he lost a legal battle to Curtiss.

Sports celebrities such as Lou Gehrig and Vince Lombardi are also making a pretty penny when their image is used in advertising or on the latest line of collectibles. Dale Earnhardt -- who died in February 2001 -- earned $20 million last year, tying him for third with John Lennon on Forbes' highest-earning deceased celebrities list. Elvis and Peanuts creator Charles Schulz are Nos. 1 and 2.

Ruth has been featured in advertising for Lipton's Brisk Iced Tea, MasterCard, Bank of America and Casio in Japan. Alcatel, a telecommunications company, paid six figures to use Gehrig's 1939 farewell speech in a commercial. Lombardi's family has reaped the rewards from royalties paid by companies like Successories, which has used his famous motivational quotes on its line of corporate cheerleading products.

All royalty and licensing rights of Ruth, Gehrig and Lombardi are managed by CMG Worldwide, a company that has over 200 deceased clients including Marilyn Monroe and James Dean as well as 50 members of the Baseball Hall of Fame. For a healthy cut -- usually less than 50 percent -- CMG pitches its athletes to companies and spends an equal amount of time protecting the unauthorized use of their names through trademark rights laws in different states and countries.

They also reject ideas that they believe would defame their client's name. "We rejected the proposal for Babe Ruth condoms," said Mark Roesler, CMG's chairman, who founded the firm in 1981.

	CMG's Top Earning Deceased Athletes
	1. Babe Ruth 2. Jackie Robinson 3. Lou Gehrig 4. Vince Lombardi 5. Jesse Owens 6. Arthur Ashe 7. Joe Louis 8. Jim Thorpe 9. Florence Griffith Joyner 10 Wilt Chamberlain

"At this point nothing is going to add to my father's image and reputation," said Vince Lombardi Jr., who has written four books and gives motivational speeches to associations and corporations. "It can only detract from the person he was. So I have to make sure that anything that has his name or image associated with it has to be a first-class product or establishment."

Lombardi, 60, who splits royalties with his sister, licensed Lombardi's name to a steakhouse in a hotel in Appleton, Wisconsin.

"I went back and forth on the idea for six months because I thought people might think it was exploitative," said Dennis Langley, managing partner of Montclair Hotel & Investors, which owns the hotel and Vince Lombardi's Steakhouse. "But we've upheld his name in the quality of our food and we haven't relied on the Lombardi legend alone to carry the business."

Endorsements and ad campaigns involving the deceased sometimes garner more attention because it throws a curve in the typical product pitch business.

"There's so much clutter that people start to tune it out," said Bob Williams, president of Burns Sports, a sports marketing firm. "But when they see someone who has passed away endorsing or being featured in a commercial, it grabs their attention."

Alcatel was accused of ripping off Gehrig's name by digitally erasing the Yankee Stadium crowd in its commercial which debuted two and half years ago. Organizations like Commercial Alert criticized the company for "dragging our heroes through the commercial muck." Because of the greater publicity, Alcatel, which was running a brand awareness campaign, garnered more attention than it expected, according to Alcatel spokesman Jamie Horton.

Companies also like to use deceased athletes because they can't get arrested or hurt themselves and miss the entire season.

"I love seeing my dad's name because it, in a way, keeps his name alive," said Stevens, an Arizona Diamondbacks fan. "But I'm not nuts about those bobblehead dolls."

Back to the Future

	The Patriots will wear their 1985 style jerseys on Thursday.

Retro jerseys continue to galvanize the sports licensing business and this week will mark another push by Reebok and the NFL to make classic football jerseys as popular as its Major League Baseball and NBA counterparts. The San Francisco 49ers wore their 1980's style uniforms on Monday Night Football and five teams -- the Dallas Cowboys, Detroit Lions, New England Patriots, New Orleans Saints and Washington Redskins -- will be donning classic jerseys this weekend. Reebok is also outfitting all 32 teams with old-school jackets and hats which they will wear on the sidelines. "The retro look appeals to those than were fans when that was the look, those young fans that want to appreciate history and finally that fashion consumer who thinks the an old school red New England Patriots jersey would look cool with his red tennis shoes," said David Baxter, president of Reebok's licensing division. Baxter said Reebok will be aggressively extending its Gridiron Classics line to fashion jackets and pants and retro polyester track jackets next Fall.

Banking On Matsui

	This 1994 Matsui card is selling for $30.

Two years ago, Gary Engel was busy buying $20,000 worth of Ichiro collectibles from Japan, confident that new Seattle Mariners outfielder would do well and American collectors would pay top dollar. Ichiro won the AL Rookie of the Year and MVP awards and Engel's risk paid off to the tune of over $250,000. Engel says he has plenty of collectibles of Hideki Matsui waiting in Japan should the Yomiuri Giants slugger sign with the Yankees in the coming weeks. "Having him sign with New York would be huge to my business," said Engel, owner of Prestigecollectibles.com, where he sells the bulk of his cards. "If he goes to the Yankees, I could do three times better with Matsui than I did with Ichiro and Matsui doesn't even have to do well on the field. Engel says he has 5,000 Matsui cards, including Matsui's gem mint 1993 BBM rookie card, which he is selling for $500.

Will You Accept This Puck?
On Wednesday Night, the Philadelphia Phantoms -- the American Hockey League affiliate of the Flyers -- hosted a singles mixer in the First Union Spectrum sports bar Bullies two hours before the game. One single woman was guaranteed to show up. Gwen, the pharmaceutical consultant from Philadelphia who was the second to last woman eliminated by "The Bachelor" Aaron Buerge. More than 150 people paid $18 apiece to attend the singles party, according to Al Cohen, public relations director for the team.

Darren Rovell, who covers sports business for ESPN.com, can be reached at darren.rovell@espn3.com