wpoll,
Your ball joint failure is a coincidence. The ball joint gets the beating daily with hundreds of lumps/bumps/potholes on the road.
The force from the slide hammer is not that much, nothing when compared against road potholes.
The bearing separator trick is in the video below.
If you don't have bearing separator, then place a piece of oak flooring wood + wrench so the wheel lugs can act on. With some creativity, you can remove the hub w/o the slide hammer.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMt71Zr1NeE.