May 27, 200520 yr Ozzie gives yet another great interview full of praise for someone... this time for Chico White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen regretted Thursday he can't attend what he said would be the biggest funeral ever in his native Venezuela. "I just told my son and (coach) Joey Cora that Caracas is going to be a mess the next three days," Guillen said of the death of former Sox great Chico Carrasquel. Guillen learned of Carrasquel's passing at about 4 a.m. Thursday, but numerous flight connections prevented him from arriving in time to attend the funeral Friday morning. "I don't think he was the greatest player ever to come from the country," Guillen said. "But to me, he was the greatest man to come from Venezuela. "I know [Luis] Aparicio, Davey Concepcion and [Omar] Vizquel were better players. But you're not going to find anyone in the streets in Venezuela like Chico." Guillen portrayed Carrasquel, 77, as more than the first in a long line of Venezuelan shortstops to reach the majors and succeed. Guillen recalled once that Carrasquel wasn't allowed to enter a Venezuelan stadium that was named for him, so he offered to pay for his own ticket. "Chico was the man on the street," Guillen said. "He would stop in any store or bakery and talk to people for hours and hours. He can go to the ballpark, and everyone wanted to touch him." Guillen was moved his first day as Sox manager in 2004 when Carrasquel led a group of four Venezuelan shortstops in attendance. "Chico was always positive and smiling," Guillen said. "He never talked negative about anybody." Carrasquel's declining health was no secret to the Sox family, and Guillen praised club Chairman Jerry Reinsdorf and Christine O'Reilly, the Sox's senior director of community relations, for assisting Carrasquel. The last time Guillen saw Carrasquel was over the winter in Venezuela, and Guillen had hoped Carrasquel would have been healthy enough to visit U.S. Cellular Field this summer. "Hopefully somebody can grow up in my country [to be] like Chico Carrasquel," Guillen said. "Not be like Aparicio, Guillen or Vizquel. Just this guy. "In my country, we don't love too many people.And we love Chico. You can check my country because Aparicio is going to die, Ozzie is going to die, Davey is going to die and [Andres] Galarraga is going to die. "I bet [Carrasquel's] will be the biggest funeral of my country. … Chico is the man to bring people together."
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