Kaval, who grew up an Indians fan in Cleveland, has long been ruled by baseball.
Kaval and industrial engineer Patel, a Braves fan from Mississippi, invented a baseball league.
Kaval and Patel secured the rights to use four city-owned stadiums and three owned by universities.
Kaval and his investors will own all the teams, with successful markets subsidizing weaker ones.
Kaval saw that prior leagues had too many owners who were low-budget, chamber-of-commerce types: Realtors, car dealers, restaurant owners.
"You wake up every day and you're doing something you love, " Kaval says.
Nettleton turned down the opportunity to invest with Kaval and now builds homes.
Ultimately 5, 000 people got Kaval's pitch, including Michelangelo Volpi, head of Cisco's routing business and a fellow Stanford business graduate.
Kaval shrugs off the idea that California is played out, despite the presence of the Angels, Athletics, Dodgers, Giants and Padres, plus 12 big-league-affiliated minors.
Given how iffy minor league baseball economics can be-no fat Nike sponsorships or TV deals-the revenue jumps Kaval and Patel put into their business plan are breathtaking.
On the Golden League's opening day Kaval will be in Surprise, Ariz. with friends and family to watch as the hometown Fightin' Falcons play a traveling Japanese team named the Samurai Bears.
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