Alex Call had just one thought when he found out he had been traded from the Washington Nationals to the Los Angeles Dodgers just before the 2025 trade deadline July 31.
“I thought, oh my gosh, I’m going to the World Series,” he said.
When his former River Falls High School teammate, JP Feyereisen, found out Call had been traded, he had just one request.
“I said go win me another ring buddy,” he recalled.
Call did just that, hitting .247 in 38 regular season games to help the defending World Series champions return to the postseason, before hitting .364 in seven games in the playoffs to help the Dodgers win their second straight World Series title.
For the 31 year-old Call, it was a dream come true and earned him his first World Series ring, while the 32 year-old Feyereisen will receive his second ring after spending the first half of the 2024 season on the Dodgers’ roster and appearing in two games with the team in 2025.
Alex Call, left, and JP Feyereisen together in the River Falls as Wildcat teammates during the 2011 high school baseball season.
The pair are believed to be the first high school teammates ever to win a World Series ring with the same team in the same season.
“It’s crazy to think about,” Feyeresien said. “I got a chance to pitch for them a couple of times, then got a chance to coat-tail them and win a ring out of it. I was rooting for them the whole way, and it made it even sweeter that Alex was on the team. Although I’m sure his ring will be bigger than mine.”
Call said he was more than happy to help his old teammate out.
“I knew he was there before I got there, and I know he has one already, so it’s going to go nicely with his other one,” Call said.
Feyereisen and Call were teammates at River Falls High School in 2010 and 2011, and both played for the River Falls Fighting Fish amateur team after high school before Feyereisen went on to pitch at Division III UW-Stevens Point, where he was named the 2013 WIAC Pitcher of the Year, and Call was named a Louisville Slugger First Team All-American and Mid-American Conference Player of Year at Division I Ball State University in 2016.
Feyereisen was drafted by the Cleveland Indians in the 16th round of 2013 Major League Draft and spent six years in the Indians and New York Yankees farm systems before being traded to his home-state Milwaukee Brewers after the 2019 season. He became the first player ever from River Falls to play in the major leagues, and just the 10th Wisconsin-born player ever to suit up for the Brewers, when he made his MLB debut at an empty Wrigley Field in the first game of the 2020 COVID-shortened season.
He appeared in six games in 2020 before rising to a prominent setup role with the Brewers at the start of 2021, bolstered by a 17-inning scoreless streak to start the season, the third-longest such streak in Brewers’ history.
Feyereisen was dealt to the Tampa Bay Rays in the Willy Adames trade in May, 2021, and was having an all-star season in 2022, going 4-0 with one save without allowing an earned run in 24 ⅓ innings, before being sidelined by a shoulder issue in June that eventually required surgery.
His scoreless streak that season set an obscure major league record. Since earned runs became an official stat in 1913, his 24 ⅓ scoreless innings were the most by any pitcher to start a season.
He was traded to the Dodgers where he missed the entire 2023 season while rehabbing from surgery, and appeared in 10 games during the Dodgers’ 2024 World Series season and two more in 2025.
JP Feyereisen, left, joined former high school teammate Alex Call at Call’s Homegrown Baseball Clinic in River Falls this past July when Call and the Washington Nationals were in Minnesota to face the Twins. Days later Call was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers and went on to help the Dodgers win their second straight World Series title.
After being drafted in the third round by the Chicago White Sox in 2016, Call was traded to the Cleveland Guardians at the end of the 2018 season and made his major league debut in July 2022. He was designated for assignment that August and claimed by the Washington Nationals, and was hitting 343 through 30 games this season for the Nationals when he was traded to the Dodgers.
“That was really validating,” he said about the trade. “At the end of the day, it really was special to think, wow, the best team ever, on paper, wants Alex Call to finish out their roster. It’s really special to think about it that way.”
Aside from their families, it’s hard to find anybody who is prouder of Call and Feyereisen than their old high school coach Ryan Bishop.
“It’s tough to put into words how happy I am for Alex and JP,” he said. “I’ve been fortunate to know these two from their little league years to their big league years. Great role models who set goals, work their tail off relentlessly in pursuit of those goals, and simply won’t settle until they achieve their goals. Talk about good things happening to good people, no one deserves it more than these two and their families.”
Call appeared in three games in the World Series against Toronto, including a start in left field in game five in Los Angeles. He had a two-out, 17th inning single in game three that was followed by an intentional walk to Shohei Ohtani, and was on second as the potential game-winning run when Mookie Betts popped out to end the inning. The Dodgers went on to win the game on a walk-off home run by Freddie Freeman in the bottom of the 18th inning in the longest World Series game in history.
Former River Falls High School baseball player Alex Call celebrates on the field after the Los Angeles Dodgers defeated the Toronto Blue Jays 5-4 in game seven of the World Series Saturday, Nov 1, in Toronto.
Call finished the postseason with a .364 batting average and a .533 on-base percentage. He said he kept a copy of the lineup card from game five of the World Series when he started in left field and batted ninth.
“Just to see my name on a World Series game five starting lineup card with Shohei and Will Smith and Freddie and Mookie and (Max) Muncy and Teo (Hernandez) and Tommy (Edman) and Kike (Hernandez) and myself, and Blake Snell starting. It’s crazy, and something that’s so cool that I can keep and show my son when he gets older. I’m really grateful, and really thankful looking back on it all.”
Call said he’ll also never forget the Dodgers’ victory parade through downtown Los Angeles.
River Falls High School graduate Alex Call soaks it all in as he rides atop a double-decker bus during the Los Angeles Dodgers World Series parade Monday, Nov. 3, in downtown Los Angeles.
“It sounded like someone had just hit a game-tying home run in a packed stadium for an hour straight. It just never stopped,” he said.
His former teammate Feyereisen watched it all back here in River Falls, and made another call to his friend after the Dodgers’ game seven win.
“It was awesome to get to see him be there and be a part of it,” Feyereisen said. “I just said congratulations, way to finish that one out, and I can’t wait to see how big your ring is.”
Bishop said there is no doubt Call and Feyereisen are both great baseball players.
“The stats don’t lie,” he said. “But what the stats won’t show is their competitive drive to achieve greatness in every aspect of life. If there was such a stat, no question they’d both be in the hall of fame. But for now, they’ll have to settle for World Champion. Not a bad title for a couple small town Wisconsin kids who dreamed big and swung for the fences.”