associations from around the world. The tournament was held before the start of domestic league play for many nations, allowing professional players from domestic leagues to participate. On March 20, Japan defeated Cuba 10–6 in the final held at Petco Park in San Diego to win the 2006 World Baseball Classic. In the 2009 World Baseball Classic, Japan defeated Korea 5–3 in 10 innings in the final at Dodger Stadium on March 23, 2009, in Los Angeles, to win their second consecutive championship. Olympic baseball Sometimes, baseball matches played during the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis in 1904 are listed as demonstrations at the 1904 Olympic Games. However, most historians do not regard them as such; actually any sports competition held in St. Louis has received a predicate 'Olympic'. The first real Olympic appearance of baseball is in 1912, as a team from Västerås played against competitors from the U.S. track and field team at the 1912 Olympic Games in Stockholm, Sweden. The Olympics (United States) beat Västerås (Sweden), which played with some Americans borrowed from the opponent, 13–3. A second game was played later, which included decathlon star Jim Thorpe as a right fielder. In that Olympics beat Finland 6–3. Both teams were Americans. Baseball also made an appearance at the 1924 Summer Olympics in Paris, American players facing a French team (the Ranelagh Club) in an exhibition game. The game lasted only four innings due to poor field conditions, the Americans leading 5–0 at the time. The American media was quick to claim a victory both for the American team and for baseball as a sport. For the 1936 Olympics, the German hosts had invited the United States to play a demonstration match against Japan. As Japan withdrew, the US sent two 'all-star' teams, named the 'World Champions' and the 'U.S. Olympics'. For a layman crowd of 90,000 (sometimes reported as 125,000), the World Champions won 6–5. There were plans for including baseball at the 1940 Olympics originally scheduled for Japan, but these plans were abandoned after Japan had to withdraw its bid because of the Second Sino-Japanese War. After World War II, a Finnish game akin to baseball, pesäpallo, was demonstrated at the 1952 Olympics in Helsinki. Four years later, another demonstration of baseball took place at the Olympic in Melbourne, Australia. A team made up of servicemen from the U.S. Far East Command played Australia.