Selection to Hall is no small feat

There are three people who, though not of great height (all under 5 feet 10), cast a long shadow on the Boston collegiate sports scene.

* Doug Flutie, the action-figure-size quarterback from Boston College, who used a memorable touchdown pass as a springboard to a Heisman Trophy and a productive professional career.

* Mike Eruzione, the miniature former Boston University hockey player who scored the winning goal against the Soviets in the 1980 Olympics in a million-to-1 upset.

* Henry Hill, the little wiseguy who was such a good fella that he taught Boston College basketball players the value of math in a 1978-79 point-shaving scandal.

Last week it was Flutie who hit the jackpot, as he was elected to the College Football Hall of Fame.

“I guess this shows I did more than just throw one pass,” Flutie said. “It’s my whole life of being the little guy and having a little chip on my shoulder, from year to year trying to prove myself, and at the end of the day to be inducted into the College Football Hall of Fame is very special honor for me.”

Eruzione, it might be noted, is in the Olympic Hall of Fame, U.S. Hockey Hall of Fame and National Italian American Sports Hall of Fame.

Hill, meanwhile, is in a different kind of Italian American hall of fame, ya know?

Trivia time

What was Boston College’s record during the 1978-79 basketball season?

Shea-ved stadium?

Nearly everyone on the New York Mets has gone with the Kojak look, most shaving their heads to show solidarity.

“I don’t think it was any one guy’s idea,” third baseman David Wright told the Associated Press. “Just as a team, we thought about it, got clippers and started doing it.”

The words “Clippers” and “winning” usually aren’t linked, but the Mets were 2-0 through Thursday, two days after the follicle frolic began. Now even General Manager Omar Minaya has joined in, getting shorn by team barber Carlos Beltran.

A long line formed in the Mets’ clubhouse Wednesday, as players waited to be sheared, with one player reportedly yelling, “Let me see, shave it! Let’s go, come on!”

Words that must have once been uttered by Hill while watching a Boston College game.

Just do it

Esquire magazine’s list of “60 Things Worth Shortening Your Life For” includes:

No. 29 -- Playing tackle football past the age of 25.

No. 36 -- Bodysurfing the Wedge in Newport Beach.

No. 40 -- Attending a Rangers-Celtic soccer match in Glasgow, Scotland. (“Imagine: Red Sox versus Yankees, if the ALCS involved sectarian hatred, hooligan rioting, and the occasional death threat,” the magazine pointed out).

Still, all of those are considered safer than No. 16: a night on the town with Kiefer Sutherland.

Too dangerous to be on the list? Making fun of Henry Hill’s mob history (gulp).

Grand old game

With no disrespect to Julio Franco (48 years old), Roger Clemens (44), Randy Johnson (43) and Barry Bonds (42), a sampling of David Letterman’s top 10 signs a baseball player is too old:

* While playing outfield, yells at teammates to get off his lawn.

* Claims he killed President McKinley with a line drive.

* Often begins sentences, “As Shoeless Joe Jackson once told me

* When he’s in the on-deck circle, asks batboy, “What did I come in here for?”

Trivia answer

The Eagles were 21-9 during the 1978-79 season. Hill, meanwhile, has claimed he made $480,000. Who had the better year?

And finally

The Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins continue to discuss a deal that would send quarterback Trent Green to South Beach. Green, meanwhile, has watched the haggling in amusement, saying, “I don’t know who’s going to blink first.”

Dolphins fans, presumably.

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chris.foster@latimes.com