He was selected by the Detroit Tigers in the 1st round, as the 13th pick, of the 1965 amateur draft, and came up with them as a September call-up in 1970, when he had 13 hits in 44 at bats.

The highlight of his time as a player was a home run in his first at bat of his career off the Boston Red Sox' Cal Koonce.

In 1977 with the Kansas City Royals organization managing their single-A Fort Myers team for two years.

After that, he guided the double-A Jacksonville Suns to a championship in 1982 and again in 1983, being named Southern League Manager of the Year in 1982.

Finally, after two seasons with the triple-A Omaha Royals in the minors, he worked his way up to the majors, serving as a third base coach for Jim Leyland's 1986 Pirates team.

However, the following year the White Sox finished 94-68 under Lamont and were first in the AL West for the first time since they won 99 games in 1983 under Tony La Russa.

His team consisted of such stars as Frank Thomas, Robin Ventura, Ellis Burks, Jack McDowell, Alex Fernandez, Jason Bere, and Wilson Álvarez.

Lamont joined Torey Lovullo, Sandy Alomar Jr., Pete Mackanin, and Dale Sveum vying for the managerial position.

On January 17, 2018, Lamont was hired by the Kansas City Royals to be the special assistant to the general manager.