Seth Blair never has been away from baseball for so long – and he's never wanted to get back on the diamond more.

Today, Blair finishes his month-long, self-imposed furlough by returning to the game he loves – and which now has given him so much.

After the St. Louis Cardinals made the Rock Falls native the 46th overall pick in June's amateur draft, Blair spent the month of July relaxing and letting his body recover from the strain of pitching the past three springs with Arizona State and the past two summers in the Cape Cod League.

Last Friday, Blair, 21, made his lifelong dream a reality. Surrounded by family at Busch Stadium, he signed a minor-league contract with a signing bonus of $751,500, an amount reported by Baseball America.

He'll report to the Batavia (N.Y.) Muckdogs of the short-season Class A New York-Penn League, a step below the Class A Quad Cities River Bandits on the Cardinals' organizational ladder.

"Honestly, I don't think it's really sunk in yet," Blair said Monday afternoon from his grandparents' home in Rock Falls. "I think it will probably finally hit me when I'm sitting at a game in Batavia, N.Y. That's probably when I'll realize, 'Hey, this is the start of my career.'"

Blair has been looking forward to that for as long as he can remember. The road has been long and the work has been hard, but Blair knows that it has all been worth it.

"I remember the days of a 110-degree heat index in the middle of summer and going to the field with my dad and brother at 3 in the afternoon and taking grounders and hitting and pitching," Blair reminisced, looking out over Wallingford Park. "It's been a long journey, but I understood that and I just stayed focused on each part of the process that it takes to make that journey.

"I have so many memories of practices and games and workouts, all the work I put in, and it's nice to have it pay off to the point where I get paid to play.

"That's just weird for me to say," he added after a pause. "It's never been about the money for me. Getting paid to play is a dream come true; everybody in the world wants to have their dream job, and I get to have it."

After having a baseball in his hand for most of his life, Blair will more than likely be a little rusty in his first couple of weeks in the New York/Penn League. He says he hasn't really done anything baseball-related since ASU was knocked out of the College World Series on June 22.

"I'm just really looking forward to getting back on the mound," he said. "It's been weird to sit back and relax the last month after not really having any time off in my whole life. I've had a baseball in my hand every day, but I've just been throwing it at the couch, not for real – I just wanted to make sure I remembered what it feels like.

"Now I have to make sure I don't too much too soon, because I'm so eager to get back. There's only a month left in the season, so I have to realize that I can't push too hard in such a short time, but focus on next year and the next several years."

As it was three years ago when he left to pitch for the Sun Devils, Blair is on the cusp of another new frontier. His goal in high school was to play college baseball; his goal in college ball was to get drafted and play professionally.

So, now that he's checked off another item on his to-do list, what's the next goal?

"I just want to work hard, stay on course, compete every day and do whatever I can to help the Cardinals organization become the best in baseball," Blair said. "If I keep my head on straight and focus on doing what needs to be done to do that day in and day out, it will take care of itself and all work out."