Born in Brooklyn, New York, MacPhee attended Erasmus Hall High School, where he was class president, played football, and was captain of the baseball and ice hockey teams. He went on to play all three sports at Princeton University, and was captain of the Princeton baseball team as a senior in 1922.
Upon graduating from Princeton in 1922, MacPhee was signed by the New York Giants and Baseball Hall of Fame manager John McGraw. MacPhee played in two games for the eventual World Series champions during their 1922 season, his only two major league appearances. His first appearance came at third base on September 27 in the second game of a doubleheader against the Philadelphia Phillies at the Polo Grounds. MacPhee recorded a hit and a walk in four plate appearances against Phillies pitcher Jimmy Ring, and scored the tying run in the Giants' 3–2 victory. His second and final appearance came three days later in another back end of a doubleheader at the Polo Grounds, this time against the Boston Braves and hurler Garland Braxton. MacPhee again manned third base, and went 1–for–4 with a triple and a run scored in the Giants' 5–3 win. In two major league games, MacPhee batted .286 with a walk and two runs scored, and committed one error in nine fielding chances.
In 1923, MacPhee played for the Denver Bears of the Western League, batting .280 with 182 hits. He spent 1924 and 1925 with the Pittsfield Hillies of the Eastern League, and played for various teams in that league through 1928. In 1929, he played for the Brockton Shoemakers of the New England League, and also played shortstop for Falmouth in the Cape Cod Baseball League, helping lead the team to the league pennant. He returned to Falmouth in 1930, but switched to the league's Osterville team mid-season.

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