Beat Gerber and a Phantom game may never happen

“Bidu” Gerber in the SC Bern dress.Image: Keystone

Wembley has its phantom goal, and Swiss ice hockey has recently known Beat Gerber's phantom game. The record player in the National League will have a match canceled from the statistics. The story behind it.

Dominik Moser / Keystone SDA

Beat “Bidu” Gerber shaped SC Bern for two decades. He is a six-time Swiss champion and holds a league record with 1,270 games in the National League – at least that's what the numbers were when the former defender hung up his skates in the spring of 2023 after 20 professional seasons.

Gerber is likely to be replaced as record player by Davos cult striker Andres Ambühl as early as next week. “Büehli” will also become the sole record holder with 1,270 games. There is a strange story behind it.

2001/02 season in focus

Numbers don't lie, as the saying goes. It's worth taking a close look at certain statistics. When the Keystone-SDA news agency set out to update the list of the 1000 club in August (including all players with 1000 or more games in the National League) because of Ambühl's upcoming record, it came across a curiosity: In the league, Gerber is shown with 1270 games, but in its own statistics the quiet champion, who has never sought the limelight, appears at the top with “only” 1269 matches.

An initial analysis shows: The 2001/02 season made the difference. At that time, Gerber was still wearing the jersey of his youth club SC Langnau, and over Christmas he played with Switzerland at the U20 World Cup in the Czech Republic, in a team with… Andres Ambühl.

Young Gerber in the summer of 2001 in Langnau.Image: KEYSTONE

In the publicly accessible statistics platform “elitesprospects.com”, which is widely known in ice hockey circles, Gerber is listed with 39 qualifying games for Langnau. In another statistic by Urs Keel there are only 38. Keel used to be the official statistician of the ice hockey association, he still believes Keystone-SDA has valuable data today.

Go through old telegrams

Keystone-SDA hired Keel to verify the number, while also asking retired sports journalist Werner Haller to look through his archives. The “Statistics Pope from the Emmental” said he went through the telegrams from the 2001/02 season that were cut out of the “Berner Zeitung” and came to the following conclusion: Beat Gerber was used 28 times in 44 qualifying games, ten times He was in the squad and on the match sheet, but was not used.

In contrast to football or basketball, in ice hockey the game appears as such in the statistics, even if a player does not play for a single second. The handling is the same in handball.

Haller also confirmed the 38 games. Keystone-SDA then confronted the National League with the facts. The communications department is saying that they trust the numbers from “eliteprospects.com” and therefore want to stick to the 1270 games. The platform, founded in 1999, would obtain its data from the league, it was said. An interaction that works today – but did it also work over 20 years ago?

Gerber's number 2 is now hanging under the hall roof in Bern.Image: Keystone

Keystone-SDA is skeptical, writes to eliteprospects.com, explains the case with all the details, but has not received a response to date. But then the surprise: The statistics platform has corrected its numbers in Beat Gerber's profile downwards, from 39 to 38 and accordingly from 1270 to 1269.

League gives in on the second attempt

Now the ball is back in the National League’s court. This time the league is giving in. After internal clarifications, it was decided to adjust the number of Beat Gerber games. A game was also “stolen” from the long-time SCB defender.

The National League cannot explain how the phantom game found its way into the statistics books. However, they confirmed that everything that happened before 2007 was tied to external data, mainly Keel. The league will therefore review its data in more detail at a later date.

HCD captain Andres Ambühl will soon push Beat Gerber to second place on the all-time list.Image: Keystone

For now, the stage belonged to Andres Ambühl. And the “game theft” thing also has something good, at least for the Grisons and the HCD. Instead of an away game in Pruntrut against Ajoie on October 12th, the “eternal Büehli” will now be able to play its record game on Thursday in the home game against SC Bern. Against the former club of the current record holder. Always with the proviso that Ambühl does not get injured, become ill or get a suspension. (RAM/SDA)

The New York Knicks are one of the biggest title candidates in the NBA after a long period of suffering. This is currently due to the new additions Karl-Anthony Towns and Mikal Bridges – but above all to Jalen Brunson, who puts success over money.

You don't see that often in sports. In the summer, basketball star Jalen Brunson gave up over $100 million for success. Instead of waiting another year and then extending his contract for five seasons and a total of $269.1 million, he now signed with the New York Knicks for another four years. The salary is $156.5 million, significantly less than he could have collected next summer.