FORT MYERS, Fla. – Carl Crawford leads off first base, watches the pitcher’s motion then takes off at just the right moment for an easy steal of second.

He’s one of the best at swiping bases, especially against Boston. And now, to the great relief of Manager Terry Francona, he can do it for the Red Sox.

“He looks awful good in our uniform,” Francona said Friday. “When he walked in today, I said, ‘It’s amazing how you can hate somebody so much in a different uni and then fall in love with him when they’re in your uni.’“

Crawford stole at least 46 bases in seven of his last eight seasons with Tampa Bay. He had 47 last year, then agreed to a $142 million, seven-year contract with Boston as a free agent.

His 62 stolen bases against the Red Sox are the most he’s had against any team. They’ve thrown him out just four times. Against Jason Varitek, now Boston’s backup catcher, he’s 35 for 36. That includes his 6-for-6 performance against Varitek on May 3, 2009.

Crawford laughed heartily when it was suggested that his stolen base totals might suffer now that he can’t take advantage of the Red Sox.

“I try to get as many as I can every year,” said Crawford, a four-time AL stolen base champion said. “That’s my goal, to try to come out and put pressure on the other team and steal as many bags and try to get into scoring position.”

That pressure also will come from his new teammate, center fielder Jacoby Ellsbury, who has two of the four highest stolen base totals in Red Sox history — a team-record 70 in 2008 and 50 in 2009 before swiping just seven last year when broken ribs limited him to 18 games.

With either of them on first, pitchers have a tough choice: fire a fastball over the plate to keep them from getting a good jump or letting them steal and focus on retiring the batter with a good pitch.

That was Francona’s dilemma when he looked out of the Boston dugout and saw Crawford at first.

“We came to the conclusion that if he got on base four times he was going to get stolen bases,” Francona said.

For decades, the Red Sox were known as a bunch of plodders, plenty of power but little speed.

From 1936 through 1993, a span of 58 years, they stole more than 80 bases just four times.

“It’s not something that this franchise has been known for,” General Manager Theo Epstein said. “I think we’ve tried to get away from the right-handed, power-hitting, pull-hitting base clogger as a core element of the club.”

Their 120 steals in 2008 were the most since they had 129 in 1916. In 2009, with Ellsbury’s 70, they stole 126. But with Ellsbury out, that dropped to 68 last year.

But the new left fielder brings much more than just speed that intimidates pitchers.

A strong defensive player throughout his career, Crawford won his first Gold Glove last year in left field. He hit .307 last year, the fifth time in six seasons he surpassed .300. And he’s hit at least 11 triples in five of the past seven seasons, with a high of an AL-best 13 last year.

The short left-field wall in Fenway Park might turn potential triples into doubles, but Crawford won’t concede that.

“I’m going to take off running so fast that if the guy plays around just a little bit, I’m going to still try to go for three,” he said. “I like to get triples.”

But if he has to stop at first, he could be standing at third later in the inning.

That happened in the fifth inning of his six-stolen base game when he singled and stole second and third. He also stole second in the first and continued to third on Varitek’s throwing error. Two more stolen bases came after he beat out infield singles.

When Crawford was in Boston in December for his introductory news conference, he talked with Varitek.

“We just kind of gave each other a hug, kind of buried the hatchet a little bit,” Crawford said, “and I let him know, I’m on your side now, so you don’t have to worry about all that anymore.”