Tampa, Fla. ? U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson reported progress Monday in efforts to persuade major league baseball to include more players from the Negro Leagues in a pension plan established five years ago.

Nelson has been assisting the players for months in hopes of resolving their complaint about being denied benefits because they didn’t play before 1947.

And although he has yet to meet with baseball commissioner Bud Selig, Nelson viewed a conversation he had last week with Jonathan Mariner, baseball’s new chief financial officer, as a breakthrough.