Sports Quick Hits: September 8th, 2021

🏎F1: The worst kept secret in motorsport is finally out in the open. A day after Valtteri Bottas announced he was leaving his longtime team Mercedes to join Alfa Romeo next season, Mercedes announced George Russell as their newest driver and Lewis Hamilton’s future teammate.

🏒Hockey: The NWHL got a facelift, and we have...mixed feelings. The league announced its rebrand yesterday, complete with a new name — the Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) — and a new logo, but they have yet to announce a change to its inclusion policy, a plan for increasing player salaries or a way to improve TV coverage. Plenty of work yet.

⚾️Baseball: Like father, like son. Toronto Blue Jay Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit his 40th home run (HR) of the season on Monday, making him and his dad — former Montreal Expo Vladimir Guerrero Sr. — the second father-son pair in MLB history to hit the 40 HR mark. Apple meet tree.

🏈College: The first AP Top 25 Poll of the college football regular season (not including Week 0) was released yesterday, and Clemson is out of the top four for the first time since 2017, while Georgia jumped three spots to No. 2 behind No. 1 Alabama. Let the cupid shuffle begin.