Alignment Question

He only put on like 500 miles before he sold it to me, I have had the car 7 years and I think I only drive about 1000 miles per year, I cant see how the ball joint could go bad that quick. Like I've said before, we only replace the center link due to another troubles. The car drove fine before that, never no tire ware, drove straight, and no wondering, just slop in the steering wheel due to the center link pitman arm trouble. So I cant see how it went that far off.