Growing up in The Bronx during the 1940s and ’50s, Ralph Lauren was like any kid of his era. He played hoops and stickball at the schoolyard next to his home on Mosholu Parkway. And he idolized the Yankees — including the player who shot him down for an autograph.
“I remember I was in the bleachers with my friends,” Lauren tells The Post while sitting in the visitor’s dugout at Yankee Stadium. “We couldn’t afford anything more than that. I went over to a few guys and one of them was Whitey Ford.