Unfortunatelly the best way is to drill it out.

I was afraid of that. I tried to carefully get a thin screwdriver between the ball and the slug and got nowhere fast and quit before I did damage. My next little question is then how can I shorten the span by a small margin without plug/redrill? I also need to make the thumb hole smaller (the reason I wanted to replace the slug in the first place!)

LOL...you guys should have asked this three hours ago. I just got finished taking four slugs out of balls.

Drilling them out is the best way provided your drill press can take the stress. On my press, drilling out a slug vibrates the press so badly that I have to end up realigning and tightening a lot of things afterwards.

Unless the ball is so old its coverstock is brittle, you can get it out with a STRONG flatblade screwdriver (I have a thick-shaft, diamond-edged GM Goodwrench blade) and hammer, and just work around the outsides until you can get it to pop loose. It will be hard work and the old slug will come out in pieces, but it will work in most cases.

Another good tool to have while you're doing that is a thin-shaft flatblade that has its plastic handle removed/broken off. You'll get the big screwdriver stuck a few times and will need the thin-shaft screwdriver as a helper.

If your drill press is good enough, use it. If not, the screwdriver method can work but you have to be patient.

Jess

Yeah, use a smaller bit, usually, a 1-1/8 for 1-1/4 slugs and 1-1/4 for 1-3/8 slugs and drill at the same pitches. That will leave you a fairly thin layer around the edge of the hole. Then take a flathead or something similar and slide it in between the slug and the ball, then a little tap tap with a hammer and it should break out. Pretty simple actually.