I was born in New Haven, Connecticut on the 5th of August and grew up in Great Neck, New York, beneath blue suburban skies. Guitar playing, Wiffleball and TV are all staples of my happy childhood.

During an undistinguished academic career at Dartmouth College, I used to drive down to New York City where I wrote some jingles (Thomas's English Muffins) and the score to an off-Broadway show Oh Baby!

After college, I became a staff songwriter with Chappell Music (now, Warner-Chappell). The first group to record one of my songs was Air Supply (After All). My most well-known songs are probably Tell It To My Heart and Prove Your Love sung by Taylor Dayne, Love is a Beautiful Thing sung by Al Green, Instant Pleasure sung by Rufus Wainwright and Did You Give Enough Love? sung by Celine Dion. Click here to see my discography.

It was at Chappell, that I met my future wife, Jody Gerson. We moved to L.A. in the early 90s, when Jody was asked to head up the west coast office of EMI Music Publishing. Currently, she is President of Sony Music as well as a movie producer (Drumline, ATL).

In 1996, the first of my three books, Baseball Letters, came out. The book consisted of handwritten letters I received from mostly retired major league baseball players in response to my questions about their careers and lives. In 1999, my second book of letters came out, this one with letters from baseball pitchers. It was called Every Pitcher Tells A Story (Times Books). Like Baseball Letters, it was a best seller. The third book in the trilogy, Something to Write Home About (Random House), came out in the spring of 2003. Click here to see the books.

It was during the making of these books that I got into collecting baseball memorabilia. Somehow I ended up with the ball that went through Bill Buckner's legs in the '86 World Series, but that's another story.

In 2004, I put out an album called Instant Pleasure. It won an L.A. Music award for Best Pop Album. You can hear clips from the album here.

In 2007, a new album I recorded with singer-songwriter Mike Ruekberg was released. We call ourselves The Red Button and the album is called She's About To Cross My Mind. Listen to some song clips here.

I'm also making a documentary called A Year In The Life. It is made up of mostly filmed interviews I did with people who had a story about them and The Beatles.

I enjoy making art, eating sushi, talking and writing about politics, looking through kaleidoscopes and sitting in the sun, not particularly in that order.

Jody and I have three children: Julian, age 13 Luke, age 5, and Daisy age 3.