Legion Baseball teammates Alex Call and J.P. Feyereisen each earned MLB World Series rings this season.
There was something different — but “in a good way” — about Alex Call and J.P. Feyereisen, as Ryan Bishop recalls it.
Bishop, who’s still coaching the baseball team at River Falls High School in River Falls, Wis., as well as the American Legion Baseball team sponsored by Post 121, coached Call and Feyereisen on both those teams. The two future major leaguers played together in 2010 and 2011, helping River Falls win Wisconsin’s Class AA state Legion Baseball championship in 2011.
And 14 years later, they seem to have become the first pair of Legion Baseball alumni to win a state title and earn a World Series ring in the same season.
“To share a ring with him, it’s really special and it means a lot for me and the community of River Falls,” Call said.
‘Get back up and keep going’
Call appeared in seven postseason games, with three starts in left field, as the Los Angeles Dodgers became the first repeat World Series champions since the New York Yankees won three straight titles from 1998-2000.
Although he wasn’t on the Dodgers postseason roster in 2024 or 2025, Feyereisen’s regular-season appearances for L.A. earned him back-to-back World Series rings.
“It’s amazing to me that we can have two guys from the same high school be a part of a World Series (champion),” Feyereisen said. “It was really a great experience watching Alex play in the World Series as well.”
For Bishop, who’s stayed close to both players, there’s always been something about the mindset of both so that he’s not surprised at how far they’ve gone.
“J.P. was a pretty undersized kid at the time, but he had an oversized heart. … No fear,” Bishop said.
Bishop recalled a game in which Feyereisen took a line drive to the face while pitching. “The ball bounced back almost to home plate. We had to look for his teeth in the dirt.”
A day later, after a visit to the oral surgeon and Feyereisen’s arm still fresh because of the previous injury-shortened pitching performance, Bishop asked him if he wanted to pitch in the late innings.
“He smiled and said, ‘Oh, yeah,’” Bishop recalled.
“I think the line drive in the face definitely taught me to leap over mental hurdles,” Feyereisen said. “I think that helped for my career, just learning to get back up and keep going.”
A similar mindset paid off for Call when his dreams of pitching in the majors ended early in his high school career.
“Alex had an arm injury after his freshman year. He was a stud pitcher and a shortstop, ending up playing varsity as a freshman because of that,” Bishop said.
But an arm injury prevented him from throwing at all as a sophomore. Instead, he played DH in the 2011 state championship season. Later, “we moved him to the outfield, he’s never played anywhere else since then,” Bishop said.
“It forced me to focus on my batting and defense and I knew if I worked hard at it, continued to go for it, that I could still make baseball a career hopefully. And it all ended up working out even better than I could’ve imagined,” Call said.
‘A no-brainer’ to play Legion Baseball
Bishop notes that both players continue to embrace their hometown roots.
“They give back anyway they can. Alex came back and ran a camp this summer the same day they were playing the Twins. He was out in the heat for five hours on a game day, then went straight to Target Field, played that night, did phenomenal,” Bishop said, adding that Feyereisen worked the camp with Call.
It’s a testament to how they were raised and the values emphasized by their time in Legion Baseball.
“For me it was a no-brainer” to play American Legion Baseball, Call said. “I loved to play and was grateful for my time playing Legion.”
“I would say for young players you need to enjoy playing the game of baseball as much as you can, and with Legion ball, you have some of the best memories playing in the summer with your best friends,” Feyereisen said.
“Any on field success for Alex and J.P. goes back to their families,” Bishop said. “They were both raised in homes that not only encouraged them to dream big, but supported the ups and downs that come along with swinging for the fences. … I’m so grateful my family has had a front row seat to watch them win and lose, fail and learn, get knocked down and pick themselves back up, and become world champions in both the game of baseball and the game of life. I can't think of better role models for both kids and adults to look up to in our community.
“They wore the (River Falls) RF with pride, they wore the Legion emblem with pride, they didn’t take it for granted.”
- Baseball