One talked about leaving the communications industry entirely, chucking a 20-year engineering career, because he didn't see anything new or "disruptive" enough to bring the industry back to life. Ever. The other engineer mentioned a stake he held in a New Jersey commodities firm — "I'm gonna be a commodities broker!" he joked.

It wasn't so funny if you thought about it. Here were two guys who had been through downturns before, and they didn't know if they would make it through this one.

The image that sprang to mind was the 1990-1992 Pittsburgh Pirates. Great teams, but every year, they got beaten in the playoffs. On TV, you could see the helplessness growing in their dugout, the enthusiasm dying, the would-be champions withering into also-rans. Even Barry Bonds charted a miserable 0.191 average during those games.

They kept the playoff races close, but they couldn't escape the air of doom. You just knew they were going to lose.

Like those Pirate teams, the communications industry has missed its chance at greatness. What I'm feeling in my gut is that the all-broadband, all-wired world just isn't meant to happen quickly, and I think some engineers — maybe even the freelancers we talked to — are feeling the same thing. Networking will be profitable again, but it won't return to the mile-a-minute days that insiders crave.

CDC keynoter David House, chief executive officer of Allegro Networks, called for a "disruptive" technology to shock a flatlining industry into health. But incumbent carriers — who are the majority of customers left standing — want proven equipment. Moreover, the industry still needs to burn off inventory, and readjust prices, and the number of companies still needs to sink to equilibrium. All of that means a slow, business-as-usual recovery.

What's concerning is that the recovery could be followed by a slow, business-as-usual future. Take broadband access. There's a backlog for DSL services now, but is there any demand outside of that? And what about long-term usage? Forty percent of Korea is wired for broadband, but you're already hearing anecdotal evidence that usage is dying off as the novelty fades.

Yes, I hear the talk about the majestic innovations on the way, the Cecil B. DeMille productions that will enable "convergence" and trigger the next Napster. I hear the guesswork about market sizes in the year 2005. It all smacks of an industry in denial, one that's overvaluing itself even after the dot-com disintegration.

The world doesn't owe anyone strong growth and healthy startup funding in 2003. Dumb boring telephone service made a lot of money for a lot of people for a long time, and maybe the same has to become true of data communications. Home-run products won't bring back the glory days of 1999. Nothing will. Maybe nothing should.

We all know that nine years after Pittsburgh, Barry Bonds hit 73 home runs and turned in the greatest offensive season ever. But he got no closer to his real goal of winning a World Series. That could be what's in store for networking: lots of bombast, no championship rings. We had a good run, and maybe that's all we get.