Chicago ? Well, it’s about time.

Not about time Ozzie Guillen got a shot to manage a team. He isn’t even 40. He hasn’t had to wait.

No, it’s about time a White Sox player was asked to come back and run the club.

Somebody who cares about the Sox. Somebody who sees this as more than just a job.

When was the last time a South Side baseball hero made a triumphant return to the corner of 35th and Shields as the manager?

Did the great Al Lopez ever play ball for the Sox? No, he did not. Eddie Stanky? No. Bob Lemon? No. Paul Richards? No. Tony La Russa? No. Jim Fregosi? No. Gene Lamont? No. Terry Bevington? No. Jerry Manuel? No.

Don Kessinger did, but he was a Cub to most of us. Larry Doby did play ball with the Sox, but for just three years.

And all Doby got to do as manager was fill in for 87 games in 1978.

So come on, how long has it been since the Sox took one of their own top men from the field and gave him the best seat in the dugout? Since the end of World War II? (Ted Lyons). Since the end of the Great Depression? (Jimmy Dykes). Since way back in the Roaring Twenties, maybe? (Ed Walsh, Eddie Collins, Ray Schalk).

You ask: “Why Ozzie Guillen?”

Hey, why not Ozzie Guillen?

“He bleeds White Sox baseball,” general manager Ken Williams said, a vivid phrase you don’t hear about many players.

Guillen held up his No. 13 uniform Monday and said, “Finally, I get it back,” as if he had his hands on Superman’s cape or a Technicolor dreamcoat.

Why not Ozzie? Inexperience? Oh, please. Was Mike Scioscia a wise old hand at managing when the Angels won the World Series? No. Or was Bob Brenly when the Diamondbacks won? No. Or was Cito Gaston when the Blue Jays won? Of course not.

The “inexperienced” Guillen’s 2004 White Sox are scheduled to open the season April 5 in Kansas City — the same place where the “experienced” Jerry Manuel’s 2003 team got outhit, outpitched, outplayed and outmanaged by the “inexperienced” Tony Pena’s Royals three games in a row.

A week later, the Royals will provide the opposition when Guillen has his South Side homecoming party. A week after that, Guillen gets to match wits at U.S. Cellular against a crew he saw just 10 days ago — Joe Torre and the New York Yankees.

It won’t get easier:

June 11-13: Guillen takes on Bobby Cox and the Braves.

June 25-27 (and again on the 4th of July weekend): Guillen’s gang vs. Dusty Baker and the Cubs.

And, oh, in between?

June 15-17: Ozzie and the Sox will be on the road, up against some club called the Marlins.

Guillen had an appointment Monday to play in a Marlins team golf tournament. His pal Ivan Rodriguez did take part, even though Pudge filed for free agency.

“I was hiding from a lot of people,” Guillen said, apologizing for not answering his phone Sunday night. He was under orders from Williams, International General Manager of Mystery, not to be his usual warm, polite and enthusiastic self, qualities that helped Guillen get this job in the first place.

What a pity Williams has chosen to become the new “sleuth” of Jerry Reinsdorf’s organization, the second Jerry Krause, making colleagues hide and be evasive as if he were Donald Rumsfeld plotting a top-secret invasion of Iraq. Ah, for the old days when baseball men enjoyed sharing ideas with baseball fans.