CLEVELAND — UFOs, monster fish, interfamily firings and pickup basketball with an all-time boxing great.

Guardians starting pitcher Ben Lively has a collection of entertaining tales, and, in a roundabout way, many of them connect to his surprising 2024 breakout season with Cleveland.

After bouncing around MLB and the minor leagues with a stint in the Korean Baseball Organization, Lively is 7-3 with a 3.03 ERA entering a scheduled start Thursday night at the Kansas City Royals. He had never previously earned more than four wins in a single MLB season.

At age 32, Lively is having the time of his baseball life, and his emergence has materialized at the perfect time for the AL Central-leading Guardians, whose record of 51-27 is second best in the major leagues.

“When you're struggling, when you come [to the ballpark] and no one wants to be here, it's kind of a bummer,” Lively told the Beacon Journal last week. “But when you're playing good, everyone's here having a good time, you never want to leave.”

Boat life leaves Cleveland Guardians pitcher Ben Lively with valuable lessons and interesting memories

Lively hails from the Pensacola, Florida, area, where his father, Ed, owns a fishing charter business. Extensive hours on a boat in the Gulf of Mexico are conducive to unusual experiences.

“One of my best friends, his stepdad has a video that's on the History Channel every year,” Lively said. “It's the Chip Holston UFO sighting. He still has the old VHS at the house when I go over there. They had one floating above the house back in the day, and there's always been rumors of sightings in our town. We were fishing one time, we saw a bunch of lights and there's always questions.”

Lively explained he was 13 or 14 years old when he and friends witnessed the mysterious lights. His take on UFOs? “It's pretty selfish to think that we're the only ones here,” he said.

Massive sea creatures are definitely among us. Marlins, groupers, tuna, you name it, and Lively has either reeled it in or watched someone else do it. He said he once helped catch a 400-pound marlin for a second-place finish in a fishing tournament.

Growing up, Lively surfed and fished on a regular basis. He said he also served as a deckhand for his father, who's typically awake by 4 a.m. and takes customers out on the water anywhere from six hours to two days at a time. He's been doing it for longer than his son has been alive.

“That dude works so hard every day, and it just makes me feel like what I do is so easy,” Lively said. “I have no reason to complain when things are tough for me. It's just like, 'Keep digging.' That's what he always keeps telling me, and it kind of sticks with me when things are going wrong.”

Listed as 6 feet, 4 inches and 235 pounds, Lively said he'll run his own fishing boat after his baseball career, but he has shown the Guardians he's not done yet. In 65⅓ innings this season, the right-handed Lively has allowed 56 hits and 20 walks, hit a batter and struck out 56. His WHIP is 1.16.

“He's a dog,” Guardians catcher Bo Naylor said. “He wants to go out there and compete, and he does that every start, no matter where his pitches are at, which usually they're on par. But you know that you're going to get the same guy every time, someone who's going to go out there and really just go and try to attack the zone.”

Lively has traveled a long, winding road toward MLB success. He spent the 2020 season and parts of 2019 and 2021 playing in Korea, where he had to prop up a mattress in his apartment and throw weighted balls against it to train amid COVID-19 restrictions.

“It's taken him a while, and it's taken him [several] organizations, a trip overseas,” Guardians pitching coach Carl Willis said. “I think first and foremost, not everyone can survive all of that and still get meaningful opportunity at this level, so it speaks volumes of his perseverance and confidence in himself.

“I also think that once you go through all that pathway, you come to the realization that all you can do is the best that you can do. You can't do more than your best. If you just go out with the idea, 'I'm going to do the best I can do and the chips are going to fall where they may,' I think what we see from Ben and having that attitude is there's no fear. He attacks the strike zone without fault.”

Cleveland baseball player Ben Lively is driven to honor the memory of his grandfather

Lively has drawn inspiration from his dad and others while navigating a journey filled with detours.

He credits his late paternal grandfather, Jim Lively, with introducing him to baseball at the age of 3 and coaching him on and off until he reached Gulf Breeze High School. In 2010, Cleveland drafted him in the 26th round after his senior year, yet he opted to pitch at the University of Central Florida. He bolstered his draft stock enough to be picked by the Cincinnati Reds in the fourth round in 2013.

As Lively's career took him from the Reds to the Philadelphia Phillies (who gave him his MLB debut in 2017) to the Royals and back to the Reds last season, with the minor leagues always in the mix, his grandpa would call him after virtually every game to offer coaching tips.

Jim Lively died last summer at the age of 81. Lively pointed to playing for his grandfather as “probably my top” motivation. He also said he believes his grandpa is proud of the season he's assembling with the Guardians.

“When I was growing up, I was the kid that threw fits when things didn't go my way,” Lively said. “[My grandpa] used to send me to the car during the game. He'd be coaching and send me to the car.”

Jim Lively could dish out tough love. He worked at Panasonic and eventually opened a seafood restaurant called Dolphins on the Bay, where Lively's parents met as co-workers and his grandmother, Joyce, shucked oysters with blazing speed.

“My grandpa actually fired my mom twice,” Lively said with a laugh. “Grandma kept bringing her back.”

How boxing legend Roy Jones Jr. influenced Guardians pitcher Ben Lively during his youth

Ed and Ginny Lively's son dabbled in sports other than baseball. At age 15 or 16, he played in a men's basketball recreation league with fellow Pensacola native and boxing icon Roy Jones Jr. Being in the presence of a legend left an impression.

“You see someone that good and you see the way they carry themselves and you kind of want to do that at a young age,” Lively said. “You're, like, 'This guy's badass. He'll beat the s*** out of you.'”

Although Lively hasn't dominated his sport at the highest level like Jones, he said he has figured out a routine this season to bounce back and prepare well before each outing after oscillating between starting rotations and bullpens at previous stops.

“I definitely probably put a lot more pressure on myself early in my career,” Lively said. “Now it's definitely more relaxed, having a lot more fun and just knowing what I need to do every single day.

“I feel like everyone goes through those ups and downs throughout their life, no matter what career you're doing. You're going to learn from everything. You've just got to separate it and push through.”

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Ben Lively stepped up as a starting pitcher for the Cleveland Guardians amid injuries to Shane Bieber and Gavin Williams

Lively pushed through at a crucial juncture for the Guardians after they signed him in December to a one-year, $750,000 contract, according to USA TODAY's annual salary report.

The Guardians lost ace Shane Bieber for the season in early April to Tommy John surgery. Starter Gavin Williams began the season on the injured list with elbow discomfort and is still working his way toward a 2024 debut with Cleveland.

“With Bieber getting hurt to start the year, you lose arguably the best pitcher in baseball, and you've got to replace him,” Guardians catcher Austin Hedges said. “The second [Lively] came in to kind of fill in that last spot in our rotation, he has turned into being one of our more reliable guys.

“He just knows exactly who he is and doesn't really care who he's facing or what the moment is. He knows he's got two special fastballs, four-seam and two-seam, and he knows that he can throw those to a bunch of different locations at any time. He's just evidence that command of a fastball is one of the best weapons you can have.”

Willis said he spoke to Reds pitching coach Derek Johnson during spring training and received positive feedback about Lively in the clubhouse and on the field. The endorsement carried weight.

“He has a unique stroke and arm slot where his approach angle you see his fastball typically 89 to 91 [mph], yet the swings you see against his fastball are more like swings you're going to see against 94 to 96,” Willis said. “There's just some deception there where hitters don't pick up the baseball maybe as soon as they do against some other pitchers, and the velocity plays up. He has the ability to sink the ball and throw a four-seamer, and then with two breaking pitches it just makes it a really tough at-bat.”

Although Lively is intense on the mound, he is known for his sense of humor off it. When a New York Mets play-by-play announcer misspoke during a broadcast last month by referring to Lively as actress Blake Lively, the Guardians pitcher got a kick out of the gaffe, adding he's heard related jokes since his college days.

“You've got to be laid back,” he said, “and let things pass as quick as they show up.”

The approach is paying off more than a decade after Lively entered the Reds farm system.

“It doesn't happen for everybody when they're 22, 23 years old,” Hedges said. “Sometimes it happens a little bit later, but it's never too late to get it going.”

This season might be Lively's most fascinating tale yet.

More Guardians coverage: Here's how Cleveland's starting rotation has been a case of give-and-take

Nate Ulrich can be reached at nulrich@thebeaconjournal.com. On Twitter: @ByNateUlrich.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Ben Lively parlays journey into Cleveland Guardians success