President Bush asks Lowell over to dinner</p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <span class="articleBegin">H</span>ow has life changed for World Series MVP Mike Lowell since signing a new three-year, $37.5 million contract with the Sox?</p> “We got a new dog,” deadpanned Lowell, “but that wasn’t because we won the championship.”</p> Lowell’s life has, at least in terms of recognition, changed. That point was reinforced yesterday.</p> Lowell was invited, along with manager Terry Francona, to a dinner at the White House with President Bush. The event, which will be held in late January, is a baseball-themed get-together. Nationally syndicated columnist George Will will serve as the event’s host.</p> “It seems like a very exclusive invitation,” Lowell said by cell phone while driving past his old high school in Coral Gables, Fla. “I guess it’s just another perk from being on a world championship team.”</p> Lowell, who says he’s morphed into a “soccer dad” this winter, admitted that with the contract comes a fresh perspective.</p> “I think it’s a three-year motivating test,” he said, “for me to prove that despite everyone thinking it’s just for three years, it’s the beginning of something that is going to last more than three years.”</p> </div></p>
