There have been very few days in his life when Seth Blair hasn’t thrown a baseball. That’s why the last 2½ months have been so difficult for the Rock Falls native.

The good news of the promotion to high Class A ball out of spring training in early April was quickly tempered by the bad news of an injury to his pitching hand – and the prospect of sitting out another 3 months before starting his second season in professional baseball.

On April 16, Blair was diagnosed with a enchondroma tumor in a joint of the middle finger of his right hand. The benign tumor, which grew in an empty space where cartilage hadn’t turned to bone, caused microfractures in 40 percent of the joint.