Are you ready to hear who the “best” sportswriters in the country are? And what the “best” sports sections in the country are? Here goes: the Associated Press Sports Editors have spoken, and the 2007 award winners in. You can find the section winners here, and the individual winners here. We’re curious as to your thoughts, since we obviously aren’t able to read every paper in the country, and we’re not aware of all the obscure writing talent out there (but we’re always interested, so keep the links coming). But before you dive into the results, two questions should jump out at you:

* The Kansas City Star dominated, winning the “triple crown” (Top 10 honor for the section, the Sunday paper, and special sections) for the third time in five years in the largest circulation category. In a city without an NBA team, one of the worst teams in baseball, and the equally-crappy Chiefs, how big of a surprise is this? It probably means the KC Star sports editor, Mike Fannin, has assembled quite the staff. But it should also be noted that he is the president of the APSE.

* Did the New York columnists get snubbed, or do they just suck? Among the 10 “best” columnists at papers with a 250,000 circulation: Two were from KC, one from Indy, one from St. Louis, one from Oregon, two from LA, two from Washington, and one from Boston. New York City was blanked, despite having four of the 20 largest circulation papers in the country (NYT, NY Post, NY Daily News and Newsday). Because, you know, it’s always about New York.