Lewis graduated from Stone High School in Wiggins, Mississippi in 1999, where he was a three sport star in basketball, football, and baseball.

After graduating in 2001, he was drafted in the 20th round (585th overall) by the Montreal Expos, but opted not to sign, instead attending Southern University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana to play baseball.

While attending Southern University, Lewis flipped a truck he was driving on a rainy night, and three of the occupants in the car were killed.

Lewis spent all of 2003 with the Hagerstown Suns, where he finished the season second in the Giants organization with 30 stolen bases.

Lewis finished the season with a .250 batting average, but as a result of leading the team in walks with 68, wound up with a .361 on-base percentage.

Lewis is one of only a handful of Major League baseball players to hit his first homer as part of a cycle.

On December 3, 2010, the Blue Jays declined to tender a contract to Lewis prior to the non-tender deadline, thereby making him a free agent.

Lewis signed a minor league contract with the Cleveland Indians on January 19, 2012, which included an invitation to the team's spring training camp.

On November 9, 2012, Lewis signed a one-year, $400,000 deal with a club option for 2014 with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp of Nippon Professional Baseball.

[14] In November 2001, Lewis was driving a truck in a storm on U.S. Route 49 in Mississippi when it hydroplaned and crashed into a ditch.