Eulice Hope was born In Chattanooga, Tennessee.  Always athletic, he lettered in baseball, football and basketball at Red Bank High School. As a youth, Eulice spent time as  the batboy for the Chattanooga Lookouts.  The manager at the time was Hall-of-famer, Rogers Hornsby.  Not only did Hope get to develop a relationship with Hornsby, but he also   got the opportunity to catch warm-up pitches thrown by Cincinnati  Reds' star pitcher, Johnny Vander Meer, while he did  a rehabilitation stint in Chattanooga,.  In 1940, Hope took a job at Dixie Spinning Mills, which had a very strong industrial league team.  Hope was signed to play, but his payment for baseball came in the form of a job at the mill.  Hope played well and drew the attention of the Washington Senators.  The Senators wanted Hope in their system, but because he had a high draft number and World War II was looming, the Senators informed him that they would wait until after Hope served his tour of duty to bring him into the system.  Hope was drafted into the infantry and   went to boot camp in Wilmington, North Carolina.  While there, Eulice was invited to play  ball for base's team. 

Moose Hope - in 1948

The army outfit would play regular games against a rival naval base's team.  In one of those matches, Eulice got to face Bob Feller.  Hope jacked  the first pitch deep, but foul.  That's as far as Hope went against Feller, as the next pitches went by  Hope so fast he never saw them.  After shippin out to Europe, he got the opportunity to play more baseball during down times.  While playing  recreational ball with other soldiers, Hope drew lots of attention for his pitching skills and quality play.  Unfortunately, throwing wet baseballs in the damp of England caused an arm injury, and like many other players in his era, Hope was unable to bring his arm back to form. After the war, with his hopes of hooking up with Washington all but dashed, Eulice returned to Chattanooga. While living there, Hope became friendly with a next door  neighbor, the Lookouts' Norm Veazey. Veazey had played for the Lookouts during the 1944 season, and was known as a well travelled baseball man. He had been in professional ball since 1937, and had played as high as Class B ball.  He also had spent a few seasons with Brewton in the Alabama State League. In 1946, Hope decided to try pro Class D ball and accepted an offer to play for the Houma Louisiana team in the Evangeline League.   Hope batted only .171 in Houma, and after his release, it looked like he was through playing pro ball. Then in 1948, Hope received a call from Norm Veazey. Norm was given the managerial job at Newnan in the Georgia-Alabama league, and he thought Eulice might want to play in the league. Veazey recommended Hope come down to Georgia  and try his luck again.  Knowing that his arm wouldn't  return  to it's pre-war  pitching form, he became an outfielder, and latched on with the Albany Cardinals for a brief stay. He then was sold to  the Andalusia Arrows of the Alabama State League. Although Hope was older than most players on the squad, he showed the skill of an experienced quality player. He finished the season with a .277 batting average, 10 homers, and 69 RBIs. In 1949, Hope jumped around from Andalusia to Ozark, then to Brewton.  Late in the season,  Hope's made another stop, this time at Lannett, Alabama.  In 1950, it seemed that Hope's playing days were behind him when  the Enterprise Boll Weevils offered  Hope a contract to help them with  their late season pennant run.  

The Enterprise team went on a tear and won the pennant, although they lost the playoffs to Greenville.   That was to Hope's last season.  He retired after the 1950 season to work at Fort Rucker in Ozark, Alabama.  After a few years there, he opened a sporting goods store, then became Enterprise's recreation director.

Eulice Hope's story of being just a step away from a chance at the majors is one that rings with familiarity for many minor leaguers of his era.  Poor training conditions and little knowledge of how to care for arm injuries often ended careers for young ball players, but in Hope's case, he was able to adjust and enjoy America's game for a few seasons.