my $sm = int rand($#ball_messages);

How well did you test your application? Did you not notice that you never got the "there's no way to be sure" reply?

Use @ball_messages instead of $#ball_messages here.

Juerd # { site => 'juerd.nl', plp_site => 'plp.juerd.nl', do_not_use => 'spamtrap' }