Washington ? Commissioner Bud Selig told a senator Wednesday that a proposal will be made within a month about a group of Negro Leagues players left out of baseball’s pension fund.

Selig met with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., who has lobbied baseball for two years about the matter. Nelson wants baseball to find a way to include the black players who do not qualify under the guidelines established when the pension fund was expanded in 1997.

“This is an important step toward solving a terrible inequity,” Nelson said. “These are some guys who really need and deserve help.”

The 1997 agreement established annual pensions of $7,500 to $10,000 for players who spent a total of four years or more in the major leagues and Negro Leagues combined — with at least one day in the majors — after the color barrier was broken in 1947.

Nelson estimates there are 120 surviving Negro Leagues players whom the plan does not cover.