He sails through the air like Bobby Orr in front of the crease. He lands. He slides. He's safe. And a memory is hatched, one that'll live in your head forever.

Most times, the term ``stolen base'' is out of place. The pitcher has no clue about how to hold the runner. The catcher has bad form or a weak arm. So the runner goes, and he is credited with a stolen base, though, in reality, he took what was given to him.

This was different. Jacoby Ellsbury didn't merely steal home in the fifth inning of the Red Sox' 4-1 victory over the Yankees last night. Such was the precision of THIS theft that he might as well have been dressed in a black body suit and breaking into Pettitte's house through the ceiling.

Plus, this was what Baseball people call a ``straight'' steal of home. It wasn't trumped up by a squeeze play, a botched pickoff or the convenience of a runner on first breaking for second.

No. This was a 25-year-old kid, in his second full major league season, analyzing the 36-year-old Pettitte right down to blinks of the eye and twitches of the ring finger.

This was a ballplayer turning his head into a computer, interpreting the data, testing for atmospheric conditions, mood swings, biorhythms and heart rate.

Let's put it another way: If you think Jacoby Ellsbury was able to steal home last night for no other reason than because he's fast, then you're nuts.

He simply figured it all out in his head, with no fancy signals coming from the bench. There was a lefty on the mound. There was a left-handed batter, J.D. Drew, at the plate.

He looked at Andy Pettitte's right foot.

``When I saw him rock back, bring his right foot back,'' he said, ``that's when I took off.''

On the previous pitch, he said, ``I was thinking, `I can make it,' but it's just a matter of going at that point. Bases loaded, a 2-1 ballgame. The last thing you want is to get thrown out at the plate.''

Yeah, that's the hardest part of all: Summoning the courage to press the button and go. Make it, and you're on television around the world. A shiny, new Red Sox -Yankees moment is born. Twenty years from now, 30 years from now, we're still talking about . . . The Steal.

And if you don't make it?

``It could be one of the worst base-running mistakes if you don't make it,'' Ellsbury said.

There was, we'll agree, a bit of a hiccup at the end of it all. Ellsbury zigged when he should have zagged, resulting in an ever-so-noticeable stumble just as he made his dramatic, on-his-belly slide into the plate.

``It's a good thing it's 90 feet (to the plate), and not 92,'' deadpanned Red Sox manager Terry Francona. ``I'd love to tell you I got here at 11 o'clock this morning and poured over reports, and that I'm a really smart manager, but what we have is a really fast player with some guts.''

And some brains.

The last time Jacoby Ellsbury stole home? He couldn't even remember, other than to say that the basepaths were probably 60 feet, not 90. That's another way of pointing out the obvious: Even players with speed, with smarts, with guts, don't steal home plate very often.

Sorry for the pun, but this is a play with legs.

The Steal.

Now and forever, it is part of all this.

- sbuckley@bostonherald.com