Wow mrjaydee...thank goodness that it didn't break while you were traveling in a higher rate of speed. The damage from the pics looks bad...but repairable definitely.
One of the VERY first things I did when I got -G-rim was to get the lower ball joint recall done. Literally had it done the 2nd day of ownership. From what I remember from the service writer telling me about the lower ball joint recall is that the 97+ Galants and Eclipses got the new updated design lower ball joints the same ones that were replacing the pre 97 vehicles.