According to Baseball Almanac (a great records and trivia source) the record holder is Ty Cobb with _54_ seals of home base. His first was apparently during his first year in the majors in 1905. Most of the record holders in this category though are from the early part of the 20th century. That's due in part to changes in style of play but also because of pitchers pitching from the stretch instead of the windup so as to not give the base-runners a better lead when attempting a steal.
According to post-game interviews, Ellsbury noticed that Petite was pitching from the wind-up. Since the bases were loaded, Petite presumably thought that no one would be stealing (as a straight steal of home is a risky play). Elssbury felt that the wind-up (plus the fact that no one was covering third) gave him enough of a lead to pull-off the unexpected.
The really great thing about this is how it will rattle future pitchers who have him on third. :-)
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According to post-game interviews, Ellsbury noticed that Petite was pitching from the wind-up. Since the bases were loaded, Petite presumably thought that no one would be stealing (as a straight steal of home is a risky play). Elssbury felt that the wind-up (plus the fact that no one was covering third) gave him enough of a lead to pull-off the unexpected.
The really great thing about this is how it will rattle future pitchers who have him on third. :-)
Sources:
http://www.baseball-almanac.com/recbooks/rb_stbah.shtml
http://www.baseball-reference.com/
Edit: Cobb had 54 _steals_ of home base. I don't know who the record holder for seals of home was (but odds are that he would have played for the Pacific Coast League)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Seals_(baseball)