In which Fred Lewis says he doesn't want to shove it up the Giants' you-know-what, when he really does

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Fred Lewis, who will lead off and play center field for the Blue Jays tonight, said the Giants are just another opponent with good pitching, and he has no special desire to give it to them.

"I've tried not to think about the past," he said. "Anything that's dead should be buried. That's over and done with. I'm moving on."

Lewis is smart enough not to burn any bridges. In fact, he said as much: "I'm not trying to prove anybody wrong because you don't know what might happen in years to come. I'm just here to play baseball right now and enjoy myself."

Do you believe that? I don't.

The Giants-Lewis divorce was not amicable. As far back as last season he asked for a trade, a request that was repeated this spring. He felt the Giants did not give him a fair shake, taking him out of the lineup when he messed. He was having a good spring training with the Giants until he hurt a ribcage muscle, he said, by coughing too hard. After that, he seemed like a different person.

Management was perplexed. Lewis seemed to have checked out. After one particularly bad game at minor-league camp late in spring training, he told reporters his side was still hurting and told management he was having trouble seeing the ball.

A trade was inevitable. Ultimately, the Giants practically gave Lewis to Toronto for $75,000.

It's worked out better for Lewis than the Giants so far. With left fielder Mark DeRosa staring down not one, but two possible surgeries (one on his wrist tendon, the other to fix his nerve issue), they don't have a regular left fielder. Meanwhile, Lewis is hitting .291 with an .841 OPS, which is pretty good for a leadoff hitter. His 21 doubles are tied for fifth in the American League.

As for that whole argument that Lewis needed a change of scenery and could not have done this with the Giants, he said that's bunk.

"All I can say is, no matter where I've been or where I'd be, I would be doing the same thing I'm doing right now because of the great spring that I had and the great offseason that I had," he said. "The change of scenery doesn't have anything to do with it.

"I wanted to play every day. That's the main thing, trade or no trade. I just wanted to play and show what I was capable of doing because last year was a fluke. I worked eight hours a day to prove to myself and prove to people that last year, that wasn't me. If you think that was me, you were wrong."

Starting tonight, Lewis has three chances to show the Giants what he wants to show them, whether the past is buried or not.

Posted By: Henry Schulman (Email, Twitter) | June 18 2010 at 03:18 PM