Forget about the All-Star Game. What we really need to fix is the Home Run Derby.

	Let's see how far Sammy Sosa can mash using metal.

I know my employers won't like me saying that, considering how they've gone to significant expense to broadcast the Derby live tonight and would dearly love to see a lot of fans tune in to watch the competition. But let's face it. As Home Run Derbies go, this one doesn't necessarily strike you as must-see TV. Barry Bonds won't be there. Sammy Sosa won't be there. And I'm pretty sure Babe Ruth won't be there, either.

But it's not too late. We can salvage this. We can make tonight's Derby the greatest in All-Star history. And we do it very simply.

Give the players aluminum bats.

Hold on, don't click onto another Web site yet. Hear me out on this. What, I ask you, is the point of the Home Run Derby anyway? It's not to see who the greatest home run hitter is -- the regular season determines that. No, the point of the Home Run Derby is to see the players hit the ball impossibly long distances. After all, we seldom remember who wins the contest. Heck, we barely remember who actually wins the All-Star Game anymore.

"They've made the Home Run Derby almost as big as the game itself,'' former pitcher Jack Morris groused. "So they should just do away with the pitcher and just set the ball on a tee and turn it into a driving contest. Let Tiger Woods and Michelle Wie step up there and see how far they can hit it.''

Well, that's a good start, Jack, but it doesn't go far enough. We don't need tees as much as we need aluminum. And we need it now, before the Home Run Derby becomes even more routine than it has become in recent years.

In past derbies, we've seen home runs reach the restaurant at SkyDome. We've seen home runs hit the warehouse at Camden Yards. We've seen home runs hit out of a domed stadium.

Let's see other skills

In a more serious proposal, baseball ought to bring back the skills competition. The Home Run Derby is fun and all, but there is far more to baseball than swatting the ball into the upper deck -- and it's high time baseball started acknowledging that again. The first step? Add an outfield throwing contest to Derby Day. Obviously, fans love to watch the longball. But something that makes them oooh-and-ahhhh just as much is an outfielder firing a perfect strike. Fans in Seattle are still raving about a throw Ichiro made to third base two years ago and a throwing contest would be a huge hit at the All-Star festivities. Imagine Ichiro vs. Vladimir Guerrero and Jose Guillen. Next, add a race. We've all marveled at the speed of Ichiro and Cristian Guzman. Picture them and others racing around the basepaths. Why, maybe we could combine the two and see whether Guerrero can throw out Ichiro trying to score from second on a single to right. Home runs are fun. But as real fans know, other talents can be just as rewarding.

But this year, I want some really impressive home runs. I want home runs so mammoth that even Chris Berman and Kenny Mayne can't come up with calls adequate enough to describe them.

I want players to hit baseballs out of the stadium tonight and onto the Dan Ryan Expressway. I want home runs hit over the Dan Ryan and into the Robert Taylor Homes. I want home runs hit into the Robert Taylor Homes and through Kirby Puckett's old bedroom window.

Give them aluminum bats.

They won't turn the contest into a farce. Or at least, they won't turn it into more of a farce than the Derby already is. Anyone with an ounce of common sense already knows that the (wink, wink) "regulation'' baseballs they use are really made out of flubber. Why not use aluminum bats, too?

They won't ruin the Home Run Derby; they'll save it. The way the contest is now, you practically have to deliver a player a subpoena to get him to participate (Ken Griffey Jr. just called to make sure we knew he won't be competing this year again, either). But if you allowed aluminum bats, the players would fight to get their time in the box. Heck, Barry might even smile at the plate.

Give them aluminum bats.

And let's not stop there. Let's really spice things up. Let's make performance enhancers legal for the contest.

Fill the batters up with androstenedione and creatine. Shoot the batters up with steroids. Expose them to Gamma Rays. Feed them Wheaties in Jethro-sized bowls. Do whatever it takes to make the participants even bigger and stronger than they already are so they can hit the ball farther and farther.

The Home Run Derby used to be great and can be again. Let's do what it takes to make it count.

In a season when Sammy Sosa says he uses a corked bat in batting practice so he can put on a show for the fans, let's give them a show so spectacular it should be sponsored by Industrial Light and Magic.

Jim Caple is a senior writer for ESPN.com.