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Arthur Rhodes will leave tickets for five people at the All-Star Game on Tuesday in Anaheim. His mother will be there, and two sisters, a niece and his 16-year-old daughter, Jade. Five women, all supporting a 40-year-old rookie All-Star.

A boy will be there, too. Rhodes, a left-handed reliever for the Cincinnati Reds, is sure of it. Rhodes’s son, Jordan, was 5 when he died in December 2008 of an undisclosed illness.

Whenever Rhodes pitches, he scratches the initials “JR” in the dirt of the mound. He will go through the same ritual at the All-Star Game.

“I feel like he’s right behind the rubber, watching me pitch,” Rhodes said.

Rhodes spoke softly at his locker on Tuesday before a game with the Mets at Citi Field. He rarely says much, anyway. He signed with the Reds the week his son died, but club officials never knew of his pain.

On Sunday, when Manager Dusty Baker told Rhodes he had made the All-Star team, he said Rhodes was stoic.

“He wouldn’t be Arthur if he got all emotional,” Baker said.

“And he wouldn’t be Arthur if he was talking all about it.”

Rhodes did not speak publicly about his son’s death until last month. After he ended a streak of 33 consecutive appearances without allowing a run, which tied the single-season major league record, a reporter asked what Rhodes wrote in the dirt. Rhodes decided to answer. There was no reason to hide it anymore.

Rhodes could have retired after the 2008 season, but he said he kept playing to honor his son’s memory. The Reds are glad ­— and awed ­— that he did.

“Nobody really wants to bring up the unbelievable emotional hardships this guy’s faced,” said the Reds’ pitching coach, Bryan Price. “But if you throw that into the mix, I mean, how do you do it? That makes it hard for most people to comprehend: How can you thrive in an environment where you’ve had so much hardship? His ability to separate personal and professional has been nothing short of staggering to me.”

Price was the pitching coach for Seattle during Rhodes’s best season, 2001, when he was 8-0 with a 1.72 earned run average for the Mariners. The All-Star Game was in Seattle that summer, but Rhodes did not watch. He never watches when he would rather participate, he said, but he does enjoy the home run derby.

That event takes place the day before the game, and players share the experience with family. Children wear little All-Star jerseys and sit with their fathers, or bounce around the outfield chasing down baseballs. Rhodes can imagine Jordan doing the same.

“I knew he’d have liked to be at the All-Star Game, like the rest of the other kids running around,” Rhodes said. “But he’s my little idol, and he’s up there. He’ll be there with me and he’ll be watching me pitch.”

Rhodes has a tattoo of a cross and the word “Faith” on his right forearm. Angel wings are inked on his right calf, which ring around his son’s initials.

“Nobody knew two years ago what happened, because I didn’t want to come out and say anything,” Rhodes said. “But I’m still playing because of him.”

Rhodes is part of a resurgent season for the Reds, who will send multiple players to an All-Star Game for the first time since 2004.

Third baseman Scott Rolen and second baseman Brandon Phillips are going, and first baseman Joey Votto leads the online balloting for the National League’s final spot.

The Reds are in first place in the NL Central, which they have not won since 1995, the year of Rhodes’s first relief appearance for the Baltimore Orioles. He had spent parts of four seasons as a starter, without much success. Except when facing the Yankees ­— his career ERA against them is 7.46 ­— relief work has suited him well.

“I didn’t imagine anyone could be better at doing their job than Arthur Rhodes in 2001, and that was with a 93- to 98-mph fastball and an 86- or 87-mph slider,” Price said. “Just domination ­— and great command. What he’s pitching with now is a 90- to 93-mph fastball with great command and just unbelievable confidence and expectation that he’s going to get the job done.”

Phillips agreed, saying: “He’s like Benjamin Button ­— he’s getting better with age.”

“But he’s always been good, and he’s always approached the game the same way. Everybody says they’ve never seen him smile, but hey, that’s just how his personality is. When he’s on the mound, he’s all about business.”

All business, that is, after a brief and poignant pause to remember his son, the inspiration for the crowning moment of Rhodes’s career next week, at a ballpark called Angel Stadium.

Baseball

The New York Times