He attended Winooski High School and then matriculated at the University of Vermont in 1941[2] after a summer playing independent baseball.

[1] He was a three-sport star for the freshman teams in baseball, basketball, and football, earning All-American honors in the fall of 1942 for the last.

[1] The Philadelphia Phillies signed LaPointe as an amateur free agent in February 1946 and assigned him to the Wilmington Blue Rocks, their class-B affiliate in the Interstate League.

[5] On May 28 of that year, LaPointe was involved in an incident in a game between the Blue Rocks and the Cleveland Indians-affiliated Harrisburg Senators, in which he ran into second baseman Dale Lynch after several players had been ejected for arguing with umpire Max Shindler.

[7][8] LaPointe made the Phillies' Opening Day roster in the 1947 season, entering Philadelphia's first game of the year as a defensive replacement for starting second baseman Emil Verban.

[2][15] Serving as a utility backup to regulars Marty Marion and Red Schoendienst,[1] LaPointe began his Cardinals career with four hits, two runs scored, two RBI, and one double in his first four contests; however, by May 14, his batting average had dropped to .200.

[16] He had one hit on the first of September, his final safety of the season,[21] and finished the year batting .225 with 27 runs scored and 15 RBI in 87 games played.

[23] He returned to the Phillies' farm system in 1950, traded to the Toronto Maple Leafs prior to the season's start.

[1] LaPointe was elected to the American Baseball Coaches Association Hall of Fame in 1978 and named to Sports Illustrated's list of the top 50 athletes from Vermont in the 20th century in 1999.