Charlie Littman’s come a long way.

From countless hours playing stickball on the streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, to helping reform the Kitsap BlueJackets, co-owner Littman is a man living his dream.

“It would have been a dream,” Littman said when asked if he ever thought growing up he’d have a hand in owning a baseball team. “I had that dream. Now this dream has come true, which is so exciting.”

As the BlueJackets kick off their 2008 campaign, the team’s fourth, few speak about the team, or even more simply the game, with more enthusiasm than Littman. It’s easy to understand why, as the 69-year-old long-time Bremerton resident’s love of baseball runs deeper than most.

Born in 1939 in New York City, Littman’s family grew up surrounded by a number of different cultures.

“In those days, living in New York City in a tenement home, you grew up fast,” Littman said. “I was in a neighborhood with many, many immigrants. Italians, Polish, Germans, Jews, Irish. It was the melting pot.”

From a poor family, Littman said he and his friends practically lived in the streets.

“Our parents were just trying to survive,” he said. “That was our life. You stayed in your neighborhood. There were no parks, no fields.

“So we played ball in the streets.”

Whether in Manhattan or Washington Heights, where Littman’s family also lived before they left New York when he was 8, Littman and his friends could be found perfecting the lost art of stickball. Kids and adults alike could commonly be found swinging broomsticks at hi-bounce rubber balls, most commonly Spaldings. A sewer manhole was Littman’s home plate, rocks made up the bases.

“If you were able to get the candy store owner or the grocery store owner to save a broom handle and get a 6-cent pink Spalding, you were the king of the hill,” Littman said. “All you had to do was walk down the street and say, ‘Game!’ Twenty guys would come out ready.

“We broke a lot of windows,” he remembered. “Then we’d all scatter like crazy.”

But one day, the days of stickball were numbered for Littman. His older brother Sherwin had severe asthma, forcing his family to move on his doctor’s recommendation. In 1948, the family uprooted and headed west, settling in Denver and the higher elevation of the Rocky Mountains.

“When I arrived in Denver, I had never left the streets of New York City,” Littman said. “It was a very, very shocking experience. They still had hitching posts (for horses).”

Used to keeping up on the happenings of his hometown New York Yankees and the rival Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, Littman sought out anything he could having to do with baseball in Denver.

At 13, he began hanging around outside the home field of the Denver Bears, then the AA affiliate of the New York Giants, Littman said.

“I started hanging out at the ballfield at 3 o’clock in the afternoon,” he said. “Games were at 7 (p.m.). I kept asking the guy if I could get a job. I went there every day.

“Finally, one day he said, ‘You want a job?’ I said, ‘Yes!’”

Making 60 cents an hour stuffing programs, Littman eventually worked up to concessions, taking on various ballpark jobs in between.

“Then I was able to stay and watch the games,” he said.

After a short while, Littman got his most thrilling ‘in,’ delivering hot dogs and refreshments to players after games in the clubhouses.

“That’s when it really happened,” he said. “I got to go into the clubhouse, meet the ballplayers. They were so wonderful and they treated me so nicely.”

Meeting players like Chuck Tanner and Tony Kubek made a lasting impact on Littman, as he worked with the team for several years.

“I was totally in heaven,” Littman said. “We were very poor. My family had nothing. They started giving me practice balls and broken bats. That was great.”

One player, who Littman said he can’t remember now, even gave him a glove, a hot commodity back then.

“I’d walk home two miles with some loose change in my pockets, some balls and a couple broken bats,” Littman said.

After about a year following the move, Littman met new friends, eventually forming the West Koufax Bums, a neighborhood team that would play Sunday games against another team a few blocks away.

Using a vacant dirt lot owned by a local gas station owner, who also built the kids a backstop, Littman said the teams would convene to play with only a catcher’s mask to use for protective gear. An adult volunteer would call balls and strikes and the teams would often share gloves. Cardboard replaced the sewer manhole for home plate and bases. The game went on.

“That was my life,” he said. “I love baseball. It was the life for me.”

When he was 16, the parent-club Giants played an exhibition against the Bears, also holding local tryouts.

“That was my big thrill in baseball,” Littman said. “I went out there with the New York Giants ball team. I spent about two or three hours just shagging fly balls.

“My hitting was good, but I wasn’t fast enough,” he remembered of his tryout. “My defense was good, but my arm wasn’t good enough.”

Another Giants visit in 1947 left an even fresher memory in Littman’s head.

In the game, Negro League Hall of Famer and New York Giants great Monte Irvin, one of the first players to cross the color line after Jackie Robinson, broke his leg sliding into second.

“He was never the same after that,” Littman said with a grimace. “He was so good and so fast.”

Colorado held more than great baseball memories for Littman however. It was also the home of his future wife, Wynne, who attended Colorado Women’s College. They were married in 1962 and eventually moved to Bremerton in 1973, opening Goldberg Jewelers.

Littman got back into baseball briefly, coaching Chico Pee Wees for three years, leading the A and B teams to two county crowns and another finals appearance.

“I had a great time with those kids,” he said. “To this day I see a lot of them.”

After that, Littman simply remained a baseball fan. But one day about 15 years ago, BlueJackets co-owner and general manager Rick Smith changed that.

“One day Rick Smith walked into my jewelry store and said, ‘How would you like to get back into baseball?’” Littman said. “I said, ‘I’d love it.’”

Those initial discussions got the ball rolling, eventually leading to the formation of Kitsap BlueJackets Baseball LLC in July of 2004.

Just less than four years later, the BlueJackets have grown, along with the West Coast Collegiate Baseball League, into one of the most respected summer collegiate baseball leagues in the country.

“The fact is, our name is now known all over the U.S.,” Littman said. “We’ve made a tremendous impact nationally about our league.”

But what Littman is more proud of is the work the Jackets have done in the community, as the team has started up everything from lunch-based programs and reading-incentive programs with Kitsap County schools, to programs with various community groups like the Boys Scouts and Girls Scouts of America, the Kitsap chapter of the Special Olympics, local youth baseball and fastpitch programs and even Harrison Medical Center.

“Our ownership group has worked very hard to make a success of the Kitsap BlueJackets,” Littman said. “We’re very proud of the ownership. We’re very proud of what we’ve done in this community. It’s great the community supports us. And we want to support the community.”

Littman said he never expected support to grow so rapidly.

“I love this community,” he said. “I think it’s the greatest place. Kitsap County is absolutely wonderful. It’s why I’m proud to be living here. We’ve had tremendous support from the sponsors, the season-ticket holders and all our fans.”

While his wife Wynne, also a co-owner, died last November, Littman said she too was just as passionate about baseball and the community.

“My wife was the backbone of this,” he said. “She did a tremendous amount of work. Her spirit and her loyalty to the team was incredible. The ownership misses her and I miss her deeply.”

The BlueJackets will dedicate a plaque in Wynne’s memory at the June 12 game, which begins at 7 p.m.