How about ending an all-star tie with a home run shootout?

What a boring game! I turned it off somewhere around the 40th inning.... well maybe it was only the 13th but it seemed like 40. I guess it's a good thing they did manage to finish the game in 15 innings, and the home plate ump must have made the correct call at home plate in the 15th (unless he was tired and wanted to go home?!) instead of like in the 10th when replays showed Navarro (I'm pretty sure it was Navarro, I was half asleep by then) slid under Martin's tag and should have had the winning run. And had another bad call not erased Kinsler at 2nd (when Tejada missed the tag) in the same inning, the winning run could have scored one hit earlier.

So instead the game drags on for 5 more dull innings (maybe the 14th and 15th weren't dull but I don't know if they were or not because I didn't see them and neither did most of the fans in attendance who'd already left the stadium a long time ago), forcing the managers to use pitchers they promised not to use and showcasing (not!) the second tier of all-stars rather than the starters (who were for the most part well-selected for a change).

Instead of letting the game drag on into boring extra innings (and past midnight for you poor east-coast fans) when the 2nd team all of a sudden gets the majority of the playing time, how about ending things a bit differently? Take a page from soccer when they inevitably have a 0-0 tie after overtime, only to settle things with a penalty-kick shootout. The All-Star game should do the same thing if the game ends in a tie after 10 innings. Settle things with a home run shootout! Heck, one dumb idea deserves another.

With a fixed 10-innings-max game, the managers can get everyone in the game without having to worry about saving players, and make sure everyone who's there gets a chance to play, as they deserve. Pitchers can go one inning without the teams having to worry about running out of pitchers. Josh Hamilton can be pulled after 2 at-bats without his replacement getting 10 (or was it only 4?) AB's.

So for those unusual occasions when the game is tied after 9 innings, give them one inning to score. And if they don't, the manager selects a 9-man lineup (or the starting lineup is used), a pitcher from among the team (or managers) to throw gopher balls to the hitters, and the leagues alternate hitters. Rules could be similar to the Home Run Derby except only give each guy one out instead of 10, and of course the home runs count for the team not the individual player. You may get to the last guy in the AL with his team down by 3 homers but he could still have a slim chance to tie if he hit 3 homers before making an out. 

Or pitch to three guys from one team (equivalent to an inning) until they each hit a home run or make an "out" (an "out" as in the Derby) and make it sudden death, with the home team getting a chance to tie. One home run from among the three guys in the first "inning" could win it. If it ends in a 0-0 or 1-1 tie, the next group of three guys gets to hit in the next "inning."

However you set up the rules though, it would be a quicker and less taxing (as well as more exciting and/or dumb) way to end the game than watching a bunch of 2nd-team all-stars who can't even hit a sac fly (reminds me of an Angel game!).